I strongly dislike Harper, and not only because of Newman. I
wonder if there's some intrinsic problem with the translation
of Macdonald's fiction into film, or at least, into
Hollywood's mold. I wish Ingmar Bergman had taken a shot at,
say, The Zebra-Striped Hearse (one of my favorite Macdonald
books).
I imagine a good adaptation would have to be quite slow and
stylized to capture the spirit of the thing.
Which brings us to the question: what's so great about Ross
Macdonald?
I would like to contribute something about Howard Browne;
since the books are packed for now, I have to rely on memory
of my most recent read by him, Pork City (circa 1987). This
is a fine historical gangster novel taking place around 1930
in Chicago, with Capone and other celebrities of the day. I
highly recommend it. It fits in well with the current
Santé ´hread.
Of the Paul Pine books, the last one I remember reading was
one of the Halos, the one with a lesbian in it. Pretty dated
viewpoint but the action and the writing were very good.
There's a prefatory apology by Browne in the reprint
(for being derogatory about lesbians).
Regards,
MrT
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