Re: RARA-AVIS: Chester Himes

From: Stewart Wilson (stewart@stewartwilson.com)
Date: 05 Mar 2010

  • Next message: Patrick King: "Re: RARA-AVIS: Parker's Procedurals, Westerns, and Their Film Adaptations"

    I saw The Big Gold Dream two nights ago when I was killing time at a bookstore. I got all excited for a minute -- before I read the first paragraph and instantly recalled reading the book last year (I am terrible with titles). Then I was sad. I would so like to experience reading any of those Himes Digger/Coffin books again for the first time. I envy any of you who hasn't read them and takes Mario's advice.
     And for those following the Sadism thread, Digger & Coffin aren't above a bit of torture either, and they certainly get as good as they give (I'm thinking specifically of acid). Which reminds me, doesn't Sallis's (Sallis wrote a Himes biography, and his Lew Griffin character is a Himes scholar) Long-Legged Fly begin with a torture frame?
    --Stewart

    On 2010-03-04, at 2:14 PM, "jacquesdebierue" <jacquesdebierue@yahoo.com> wrote:

        I have been on a rereading binge for about a year, and last week I took up Himes, his All Shot Up and The Big Gold Dream... fantastic, better even than I remembered. If anybody here has not read Himes, head for a bookstore or a library and do it! These hardboiled novels have it all: humor, surrealism, street savvy, great dialogue, great plots, and they are hardboiled as hell.

        Kid



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 05 Mar 2010 EST