Steve,
Colin did a better job than I at explaining the appeal and
innovation of O'Connell. As for James Sallis, his Lew Griffin
novels are also unique. It's probably possible to take the
early entries as simply crime novels, but as the series goes
on, they become far more complex. Crime becomes less and less
the series' focus, can't even remember if there was one in
the last book. The character goes through some serious
changes, and the narrative is far from straight forward. The
first book alone is made up of four (or was it three? time to
read them again) interconnected short stories that span
decades. The other books weave in and out of those stories,
sometimes giving very different readings of the same
incidents, as they resonate different ways at different
points in his life. This series really should be read in
order. Although they are not very chronological in their
telling, there is a slow build in the revealing of the many
levels of Lew Griffin.
Sallis does other voices just as well. Drive is a very
good, though far from orthodox, caper novel about a getaway
car dirver; it's linked in my mind to those classic
existential car movies of the '70s, like The Driver, Two Lane
Blacktop, Vanishing Point, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, etc.
And still another voice in his latest series. I've read
Cypress Grove and will soon get to Cipple Creek.
Mark
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