Bill wrote that some guy wrote:
>"he knew the alley life and it helped him make his
story backgrounds
>absolutely authentic."
While the Hardman books do have plenty of moments of true
grit, and he writes the hell out of the Atlanta setting,
there's also an element of "gee whiz over-the-topness" about
them that actually makes them great fun to read, a sort of
down-and-dirty version of Spenser and Hawk. I don't think you
have to necessarily live in the gutter to know what you're
talking about, though occasionally it helps. And maybe if
Dennis hadn't known the alley life so well, his books would
have been a bit better written (some of them seem pretty
cranked out), and he'd still be with us, still writing
kickass books. I think the only thing "absolute" in that
statement is that the guy who wrote it wants to sell those
books.
I mean, are the Stark books any less authentic to the average
reader because Westlake has never killed a man or robbed a
bank?
Give me a writer with an imagination and the ability to
understand people and do research over one with mere
experience anytime. fortunately, Dennis had both. Thanks for
sharing your memories, Richard.
--
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