Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Ross MacDonald--the Two Faces

From: Sean Shapiro (ssshapir@yahoo.com)
Date: 07 Jan 2010

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    To add to the confusion: I bought my first Ross Thomas book (Missionary Stew) in a charity shop thinking I was buying a Ross MacDonald. One of the best mistakes I ever made.

    Sean Shapiro 

     

    ________________________________ From: WALKER MARTIN <wamartin2@verizon.net> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thu, January 7, 2010 5:26:48 AM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Ross MacDonald--the Two Faces

     
    ------------ I first discovered Ross Macdonald in the 1960's and he immediately became one of my favorite mystery writers.  This year I decided to reread a couple of the Lew Archer novels and ended up rereading all 18. I also took breaks rereading Raymond Chandler and Hammett. All three remain my favorite detective authors. 
      When the comment was made about "preachy", I at first assumed we were talking about John D. Macdonald's Travis Mcgee novels because I find them dated now due to the soapbox elements, etc. Ross Macdonald seldom descended to this level and I even have no problem with his last few novels. I still rank him as one of the big three of detective fiction.
     
    ------Walker Martin.
     
     

    --- On Thu, 1/7/10, jacquesdebierue <jacquesdebierue@ yahoo.com> wrote:

    From: jacquesdebierue <jacquesdebierue@ yahoo.com> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Ross MacDonald--the Two Faces To: rara-avis-l@ yahoogroups. com Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 12:14 AM

     

    I think Ross Macdonald's fiction evolved, not necessarily the way hardboiled fans would have wanted it to evolve, but it did. I think the books got more and more predictable, though they are all good reads, at least for me. I don't find the later books so much preachy as glum, tired, but still good. He did want to make certain points, that is true. Perhaps he did underline too much. But when I pick up one of those novels, I don't stop, I read it from cover to cover. That's a sign that the author did something right...

    Best,

    mrt

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