why can't you ever read 'the long goodbye' and 'the glass key' again?
--- On Sun, 1/11/09, Brian Thornton <bthorntonwriter@gmail.com> wrote:
> From: Brian Thornton <bthorntonwriter@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: The Hard-Boiled Classics
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Sunday, January 11, 2009, 12:21 AM
> On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 8:58 PM,
> <DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net> wrote:
>
> >
> >
>
> > Mario wrote:"Aren't you thinking of Blood
> Money? I like this "novel" made
> > up of twostories, very pulpy,"
> >
>
>
> > Yes, I am. Big Knockover was the other story. I think
> of it under that
> > title because I first read it in the short story
> collection with that title.
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> **************
> I believe the actual title is $106,000 BLOOD MONEY, and
> yes, it and THE BIG
> KNOCKOVER are two halves of the same story. Furthermore, I
> agree, it is
> definitely worth reading.
>
> I have to chime in here because if there's a bigger fan
> of Hammett's short
> stories out there I don't know of them. So many of his
> works are no
> available in Black Lizard collections such as THE
> CONTINENTAL OP and
> NIGHTMARE TOWN. When I think of Hammett of course I think
> of the novels,
> MALTESE FALCON, THE GLASS KEY, THIN MAN and the much weaker
> RED HARVEST (You
> could tell with it that he had cobbled together at least
> for shorter form
> pieces) and THE DAIN CURSE (My least favorite of his
> books), hell, you can
> even get that so-so later novelette of his, WOMAN IN THE
> DARK... but I also
> think of short stories.
>
> Titles like "Fly Paper," "Dead Yellow
> Women," "The Gutting of Couffignal,"
> "The Scorched Face" (my favorite of his stories),
> "The House on Turk Street,
> and its sequel, "The Girl With the Silver Eyes,"
> all come to mind. GREAT
> stuff.
>
> With Hammett it's nice to read them in order, because
> it's fun to witness
> his development as a writer, and this is all the more true
> of Chandler, and
> particularly with Chandler's short stories.
> "Blackmailers Don't Shoot," his
> very first published short, is just awful. But he got
> better, and stuff
> like "Guns at Cyrano's," "Red Wind"
> "No Crime in the Mountains," "Bay City
> Blues," and Spanish Blood" followed. Chandler
> lifted a lot of the stuff
> from the short stories he wrote for venues such as BLACK
> MASK in the 1930s
> and used it in his novels (he called it
> "cannibalizing" them). So if you're
> interested in tracking his development as a writer, reading
> his short
> stories and then his novels might be helpful. I'm
> envious. Although I can
> read all of this stuff over and over again, I can never
> again read THE LONG
> GOODBYE or THE GLASS KEY again.
>
> As for names to add to your list, I recommend Ross
> MacDonald, because he
> started writing in the 40s, his Lew Archer series detective
> started out very
> hardboiled, and in the 50s, (beginning with stuff like THE
> DROWNING POOL)
> his novels evolved into more psychological studies. By the
> time he wrote
> THE DOOMSTERS (1959) Archer seemed in many ways to be part
> social worker,
> helping the rich with the long-buried sins that were
> jeopardizing their
> futures (namely their children). Many novels mining the
> same terrain
> followed during the next six or so years: THE CHILL, THE
> GALTON CASE, THE
> WYCHERLY WOMAN, THE ZEBRA-STRIPED HEARSE, BLACK MONEY (his
> personal
> favorite), and he went on to write others until his final
> novel THE BLUE
> HAMMER, in 1976.
>
> It's been said before with some validity that MacDonald
> wrote the same novel
> over and over, but man, what a novel, and what variations
> on a theme!
>
> Hope this helps-
>
> Brian
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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