Jack said: I think what holds readers back is that he wrote
first-person from Travis's point of view and his description
was often picturesque rather than bleak.
********** Unlike quite a few of the rara-avis list who have
probably gone thru the entire Travis series, I've only read
THE DEEP BLUE GOODBYE and DRESS HER IN INDIGO. DEEP BLUE
seemed a bit slow going at first, and since it was my first
one, I was put off by the dimestore philosophizing, but it
had one hell of a climax, violent and dramatic and exciting
and let me get out my thesaurus and I'll find some more
adjec- tives.
A lot of DRESS HER IN INDIGO plays in Mexico, and I found it
to be entertaining all the way through. I thought this book
better displayed his talent for character development, and
the plot rolled along well. Either there was less of the
famous Travis philosophy or else I was more immune to
it.
And not only do I agree with Jack's comment about the books'
viewpoints being picturesque instead of bleak, but I also
fully approve of it. It's refresh- ing. I didn't feel like my
soul needed a shower when I finished them.
One thing I might note is that the outcome of both books had
a very similar "look and feel". Although Travis has solved a
mystery, great damage has been done to people who were not
the bad guys, and the ending is not really a happy one. This
similarity in endings is not a problem for me... I just
thought I'd mention it.
I don't think these two books are noir. Although there are
some bad characters and sad endings, and Travis is not always
happy about the state of things, there is still an upbeat
quality about JDM's books' mood that allows them to escape
the noir tag. They seem to me to be more exciting and
adventurous than dark and sinister. No complaints from me.
There is something in my brain that's whispering to me that
there is a serious flaw in noir. Maybe it's the air of
predestination that seems to hang over noir. It seems to put
more emphasis on the doomed ending than on the characters'
actions sometimes. That doesn't ring true to me.
miker
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