You've got it right Dave. In my opinion, the Continental Op
stories rank as one of the best series ever and, certainly,
at or near the top in influence. If I had to choose between
the Op stories and the Hammett novels, the Op stories would
win hands-down. They did as much to create the sub-genre that
this list celebrates as any other single body of work--and
yes that includes Chandler and Cain.
A side note, a couple of recent posts, including Patrick
King's below, seem to count count speed of composition
against a work of fiction. All that matters is what is on the
page. Did Hammett turn out fast copy to make a living, sure,
but does anyone believe Jim Thompson, celebrated by Patrick
as the equal to Cain, wasn't producing at a high rate as he
churned out several novels a year for Lion Books? Some were
fine novels and others were failures but good or bad, they
were not the result of long gestation.
Finally, most of Cain's novels are great novels??? Please!!!
And the worst of his novels were the ones he labored the
longest to produce. As William DeAndrea noted it may have
been the "...compulsive rewriting (he once said no one who
wasn't prepared to rewrite a manuscript twenty-five times
could call himself a serious writer)skimmed off any freshness
in his later work before the public got to see it."
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Zeltserman"
<dz@...> wrote:
>
> Patrick,
>
> I could not disagree more with you about the
Continental Op which
I
> consider some of the best crime fiction written.
Btw. You left out
Red
> Harvest which has made a number of best 100 book
lists, including
Time
> Magazines.
>
> --Dave
>
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Patrick King
<abrasax93@>
wrote:
> >
> > All of Cain's books are interesting and most of
them
> > are great novels. While Hammett's The Thin Man
& The
> > Maltese Falcon are great books, the others tell
the
> > breakneck speed he wrote at. The Glass Key, The
Dane's
> > Curse are pretty awful in my opinion, and
the
> > Continental Op is a cartoon. I would say Cain's
only
> > equal is Jim Thompson. They're, of couse,
much
> > different stylists, but their quaility is
consistent
> > from book to book.
> >
> > Patrick King
> > --- Dave Zeltserman <dz@>
wrote:
>
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