Re: RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled/Noir Commentary and Criticism

From: Alan Ziebarth ( ziebarth@chipublib.org)
Date: 01 Aug 2002


Robison Michael R CNIN wrote:

> Al said:
> Re "Murder Off the Rack". No good home (or boat, or tent) should be without
> one.
> >From amazon: "Contributors and their subjects include Donald E. Westlake on
> Peter Rabe, Loren D. Estleman on Donald Hamilton, Bill Crider on Harry
> Whittington, Marvin Lachman on Ed Lacy, Max Allan Collins on Jim Thompson,
> Jon L. Breen on Vin Packer, George Kelley on Marvin H. Albert, Ed Gorman on
> Charles Williams, Will Murray on Don Pendleton and the Executioner series,
> and Dick Lochte on Warren Murphy."
>
> Whilst you're at it, Mike, you might want to check out "Difficult Lives" by
> James Sallis. An excellent, if short, collection of essays on the noir
> triumvirate of David Goodis, Jim Thompson and Chester Himes. Sallis has
> also written a fairly recent major biography of Himes (haven't read it yet,
> so can't comment on it).
>
> ***************
> Darn, Al! Talk about chewing on a big fat humility pill! I
> looked over the 10 masters it covers, and I've only read TWO
> of them, Williams and Thompson, and the only other one I had
> a passing familiarity with is Rene's buddy, Peter Rabe. But
> I've got the book coming. The summary for the book says that
> it has a list of the books covered at the end of each essay,
> so when I get it I'll start searching around for some of them.
>
> And yes, I have got the _Difficult Lives_ book on my wish list.
> You've kinda put a different slant on it. I thought the book
> was essentially a short biography of each of the authors, but
> by the sound of your comments, it goes a bit farther than this.
> Thats good. At least I HAVE read all three of these guys.
> haha.
>
> Also I noted a while ago on the list that there is a biography
> out on Jim Thompson with a lot of pictures from his life and
> a lot of his book covers, too. I was wondering if anybody had
> read this and if it was any good. It looks good. I can't name
> the author, though.
>
> miker
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The biography on Jim Thompson is called Savage Art, The author is robert Polito. I am currently reading this book. It is absolutely fantastic. In fact, I think that it is one of the finest biographies I have ever read. Don't miss it!!!

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