I don't know where I suggested that speed of composition was
a bad thing or denigrated any writer for writing fast. I
beleive Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon non stop over 72
hours and that is the top of this genre.
I simply disagree with you about Cain's lesser known work.
I'm pretty sure I've read all of his available work and I
think it's great writing. I loved Love's Lovely Counterfeit,
can't think of a better, less convoluted look at small-town
corruption. Yes, the work he researched hardest seemed to
sell least well. He told his biographer, Roy Hoopes, that the
books that made him the most money as books were the ones
that were plot driven. The character driven stories didn't
sell as well. I think that's a good observation. He made a
lot of money from the film of Mildred Pierce, but the novel
did not sell as well. It is, nonetheless, a brilliant
personality study. Cain's prose is a pleasure to read. From
reading Hoopes bio, I think he took himself too seriously and
paid too much attention to what his relatives thought about
his writing. He should have stayed in California and
concentrated on crime fiction. Still, no one has written
better than Postman, Double Indemnity, and Serenade. I also
loved his last book, The Enchanted Isle, his take on the run
away drug culture of the 1960s. To me, Cain is
unsurpassed.
Patrick King
--- Richard Moore <
moorich@aol.com> wrote:
> 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:
> >
>
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels
with Yahoo! FareChase. http://farechase.yahoo.com/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 30 Sep 2007 EDT