There were several novels by John D. MacDonald that might
qualify. A KEY TO THE SUITE (1961) is one example and one of
my favorite by JDM. I bought this one new off the rack. Damn
that was 44 years ago. There was another one about a factory
being taken over by a corporate raider. I can't check the
title at the moment but perhaps someone can supply it for us.
This was many years before such activities began receiving
media attention. JDM made good use of his Harvard MBA.
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Jay Gertzman
<jgertzma@e...> wrote:
> Does anyone know of crime novels in which the
machinations of
corporate
> crime as opposed to "underworld" or "mafia" crime is
the source of
> suffering and despair. I know that Chandler, Hammet,
Westlake,
McGivern,
> Goodis, Wolfert describe political and mob bosses
who are too
powerful
> to reach, or so much in control of a city that their
confederates
> include editors, bankers, police chiefs, etc. But
these are of
human
> scale, who are flawed, and sometime hindered by
anger, greed, lust,
etc.
> Even Michael Corleone carries guilt at some level;
even the
devilish
> Noah Cross in _Chinatown_ is a human sized power
monger obsessed
with
> ultimate power, therefore incest.
>
> But what about the impersonal, mechanistic force
that the
corporation
> represents, the kind that is flawless because
inhuman and
superhuman. It
> is reponsible for mega-death (pollution, cancer from
cigarettes,
deaths
> from unsafe autos, bought-and-paid-for politicans
who prevent
reform
> of the abuses caused by accounting, insurance,
credit card, or
> pharmaceutical businesses)? Are there noir crime
novels which
depict
> the results of corporate power? I know non crime
genre works do
so,
> even _The Grapes of Wrath_ (1939). The foreclosing
bank is
described as
> an enemy no dispossed farmer can deal with, even by
shooting its
> minions. _Fight Club_ comes close in describing the
need of
corporate
> employees to assert their humanity by pain, identity
swapping, and
acts
> of terrorism against the system and even innocent
individuals
whose
> lives have been homogenized and emasculated the
sterility of
office,
> mall, and "sanatized" entertainment. Perhaps this is
a subject too
> abstract for the crime or mystery genre, but it
seems to me to be a
> chief cause of man-made, criminal suffering world
wide.
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