Vicki, Ron, Gonzalo, thanks.
I'm a big Jim Thompson fan, and spent countless hours studying the
structure and style of Hell of a Woman, Savage Night, Swell-Looking
Babe, Pop. 1280, After Dark, My Sweet, when I first started getting
serious about writing and before starting Fast Lane. Whether I wanted
to or not (and I soon didn't want to!) I invited the comparisons for
Fast Lane when I wrote a book that was at least partly psychotic noir,
with a protagonist as crazy and delusional as Lane--although Lane has
far more common with the typical Ross Macdonald villain--someone who'd
do anything to avoid having his sins exposed--than Thompson's
unapologetic crazies.
When I wrote Small Crimes I wanted to write something more modern, and
something that wouldn't draw comparisons to Thompson. Serpent's Tail
has labeled this a noir thriller, and I think given the pacing and
structure that's a fair label. It's definitely not psychotic
noir--there's nothing oft-center or delusional about my protagonist's
thinking. no matter how much he might be rationalizing what he does. I
guess anytime you have a book that has a dark feel to it and a
protagonist who makes the reader feel uncomfortable it's going to draw
comparisons to Thompson, but I don't think this book has anything in
common with Thompson. When I was going through the copy edits years
after writing it, I was struck more with the thought that it had more
in common with Dan Marlowe--at least before he started writing his
soft porn Operational books ;)
My next book, Pariah, won't be out in the UK until Jan., and probably
not in the US until June, and I feel pretty confident that that one
won't be drawing any comparisons to Thompson. Maybe I'll be finally
out of his shadow...
--Dave
www.davezeltserman.com
--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Gonzalo Baeza" <gbaeza@...> wrote:
>
> Small Crimes was indeed a great read. The Jim Thompson comparisons are
> inevitable but even though they are flattering, I also believe they
> are unfair. David Zeltserman has his own voice and the Joe Denton was
> a very plausible character, in many ways more disturbing than the
> deranged narrators from The Killer Inside Me or Pop. 1280. While the
> latter two are patently crazy, Denton is more of a sociopath who
> albeit having a grasp of reality and the consequences of his actions,
> in his own mind he still ses himself as a victim of circumstances.
>
> I just read a nice little review of the novel here:
>
>
http://hub.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080928/THINGS0206/809280618/1142/HUB06
>
> Coincidentally enough, it discusses one of the other crime novels that
> rank high as my best reads of 2008: Iain Levison's Dog Eats Dog. I
> plan on reviewing both for a Spanish website in the next few weeks.
>
> -Gonzalo B.
>
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Ron Clinton" <clinton65@> wrote:
> >
> > SMALL CRIMES was truly a great read. I read FAST LINE first, and was
> > impressed...but SMALL CRIMES took it to the proverbial next level -- a
> > terrific read! If the trend continues, can't wait to read PARIAH!
> >
> > Ron C.
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com] On
> > > Behalf Of vhend1234
> > > Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 6:36 AM
> > > To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> > > Subject: RARA-AVIS: CORRECTION -- PARIAH is next!
> > >
> > >
> > > So sorry! I'm always one book ahead. Small Crimes is the one just
> > > coming out and getting good reviews! You still have to wait a
> while for
> > > Pariah. I love them all, but Small Crimes will probably scare
you the
> > > most. Vicki
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------
> > >
> > > RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 02 Oct 2008 EDT