hi everybody,
first a disclaimer... this is not well-thought out. i'm just
sorta thinking here.
rene recently mentioned that hardboiled in the states
typically has a liberal dose of romance and maybe even
sentimentality. i've been thinking about that recently and i
think i agree. this is not relatively speaking, since i have
read little hardboiled, and none from authors
elsewhere.
and although this is tough for a hardboiled fan to admit, i
think the romantic element often plays an important part in
my enjoying the book. it seems to add a balance of humanity
to a bleak, cruel, and inhumane world. i've seen it used in
jd macdonald, robert parker, james lee burke, vachss, and
just about every other hardboiled i've read.
getting to the point: there's been a couple well-established
classics which i just didn't like: thompson's _killer inside
me_, and hammett's
_red harvest_. and the question i've been rolling over is if
i like most hardboiled, why didn't i like these two highly
regarded novels, and i'm wondering if maybe its because they
were missing this element. even as i say this i see myself on
shaky ground... there was romance in _killer inside me_. but
it wasn't a good kind of romance. it was overshadowed by
murderous insanity.
and speaking of hardboiled and love relationships, i watched
turner and garfield in "the postman always rings twice" last
night. it was good. was that love? man... it was complicated,
whatever it was. i gotta read the book.
miker
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