From: "Mark Sullivan"
> And Ron, what was disappointing about the Gores
collection? I see it
> includes Second Coming (from the Black Lizard
anthology), which was one
> of the more affecting short stories I've
read.
In all fairness to Mr. Gores, I probably should have
qualified that off-the-cuff statement a bit. The collection
as a whole was not *overly* disappointing - there were, in
fact, several very strong and powerful, well-written tales.
Taken as a whole, however, and read straight through in a day
or two, one - or, at least, I - came away from the collection
with a sense of it being very dated...and not in a "classic"
sense. About half of the stories were written in the '70's
and suffer from many of even-then dated euphamisms as "dig,
man" and "it's a gas, man" and "groovy" and the like. Even
SECOND COMING had a generous amount of this - but, as you
say, its affecting style and theme kept this story from being
buried by the hep-cat lingo. It simply felt oddly
dated...distractingly so. Perhaps Ellroy can, to some extent,
get away with this type of dialogue, but in Gores' case, the
material felt burdened by its origins.
I can certainly appreciate a book being dated by themes and,
yes, even dialogue, as is common with many of the musty old
Gold Medal et al paperbacks that many of us cherish. But in
this particular case, the lovebeads and polyester just
swished too loud for me to enjoy some of the stories in and
of themselves.
My opinion could have also been colored, I suppose, by having
read Clark Howard's collection, CROWDED LIVES, immediately
preceding the Gores collection, so perhaps the bar had been
set too high; I'd be hard-pressed to name a better
short-story writer penning poignant, dark suspense than
Howard
(though Ed Gorman certainly springs to mind).
And his material will never be dated.
Ron Clinton
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