Charles wrote:
> Hi, Jeff,
>
> Sorry to hear you didn't like the book; obviously,
different people
> will like different things, and that's fine. I can
tell you, though,
> that many people don't agree with you. Literally
every week I get e-
> mail messages from people complimenting TWO FOR THE
MONEY and asking
> us to reprint more of the novels in the Nolan series
-- and we
> certainly don't get messages like that in response
to every title we
> publish.
>
> I'm not saying you should have liked it, of course,
but lots of
> people did like it, so I feel comfortable describing
your reaction as
> idiosyncratic rather than typical.
No offense, Charles, and if I'm out of line here, feel free
to disregard this missive, but I find this passage somewhat
troubling:
"I can tell you, though, that many people don't agree with
you. Literally every week I get e- mail messages from people
complimenting TWO FOR THE MONEY and asking us to reprint more
of the novels in the Nolan series -- and we certainly don't
get messages like that in response to every title we
publish."
It just doesn't sound like a discussion we ought to be having
on RARA AVIS. I have two Hard Case Crime editions in my
massive TBR list, Al Guthrie's KISS HER GOODBYE and
Stansberry's CONFESSION, and I was considering commenting on
one or both of them here once I had finished them, since RARA
AVIS is the place for discussing HB/Noir fiction. Now I'm not
so sure.
After all, what if I don't like Stansberry's book and say so
here? Can we have a discussion of its merits (they do
sometimes get spirited around here), rather than having
statements about how I'm entitled to my tastes, but MANY
people liked it (after all, it won him an Edgar). If you take
your statement above out to its natural conclusion, we ought
to all be reading
(or re-reading) and discussing Harry Potter books and Dan
Brown's DaVinci Code. Do "popular" and "good" always go hand
in hand in the publishing business?
But wait, you say, this is a Noir/HB list and those are not
Noir/HB titles. Alright then, pick your poison: the Midnight
Louie Las Vegas cat-as-private-investigator titles are wildly
popular right now. Should we all be discussing "Cat in a
Midnight Choir"? It's got a detective, and it's a mystery.
It's at least as dark as anything Parker's written for
Spenser in the last decade or so, and his stuff gets
discussed here.
What happens if a bunch of us read Stephen King's THE
COLORADO KID when it comes out in HCC and write something
critical of it here at RARA AVIS? Will we be told that we're
entitled to our respective tastes, but MILLIONS of fans have
written to crow about how much they LOVE his work? I just
don't see the point. After all, King's so popular that his
books sell themselves. And although his work has been pretty
damned good for stretches of his career (I don't enjoy most
horror, so I haven't read much past stuff like
'SALEM'S LOT, THE SHINING, and THE STAND), he's got such name
recognition that books such as THE TOMMYKNOCKERS, and NEEDFUL
THINGS, and a host of other lesser works from his coked-up
phase during the late 80s and early 90s still fly off the
shelves. So what? It doesn't make them good books.
This is not to say that King is not a good writer (Although
he's not. He's a great one. His ON WRITING is a must reader
for any book lover anywhere.). It's to say "so what if it's
really popular? That ought to be germaine here on the Rara
Avis list how, exactly?"
All the Best-
Brian Thornton
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Jul 2005 EDT