Mark Sullivan wrote:
> I find Slim's overbearing misogyny more than a bit
creepy at times,
> which may be why I far prefer his con job novels to
Pimp (if anything,
> it's worse hearing those sentiments spoken out loud
on his spoken word
> album, which is backed by some of the worst
pseudo-jazz you've ever
> heard). Although Nathan Heard's Howard Street is
populated by pimps,
> hustlers and whores, often in extreme circumstances,
he seems more
> intent on understanding the lives of all of these
people than
> glamorizing those lives.
********************** My main complaint about PIMP is that I
thought the writing was poor. It seemed to me that a lot of
conversations got repeated, with nothing to gain from it.
There was little insight in the book. The scenes, the pacing,
and the characters were poorly done.
Hemingway said that a writer had to have a built-in bullshit
detector. I don't think Slim had that.
I'm 50/50 on the black writers I've read. I didn't much care
for Goine's WHORESON, either, although I thought it was
better than PIMP. Ed Lacy's ROOM TO SWING and Himes's COTTON
COMES TO HARLEM were both excellent.
Shifting gears, I'm having a hell of a time getting Heard's
HOWARD STREET. I've ordered it twice and twice my order has
been cancelled.
miker
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