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RARA-AVIS: Fly Paper
On 2 Feb 1997 RKING@VUNET.VINU.EDU wrote:
> Has anyone read "Fly Paper?"
Ohhhh, yes. It's a classic, from the opening line ("It was a wandering
daughter job.") to the last, which, given the Op's attitude toward the
person spoken of, has to be one of the most unemotional in all of HB
fiction. Critics often single out an early paragraph of this story as a
prime example of the HB style of writing:
"Babe liked Sue. Vassos liked Sue. Sue liked Babe. Vassos didn't like
that. Jealousy spoiled the Greek's judgment. He kept the speakeasy door
locked one night when Babe wanted to come in. Babe came in, bringing
pieces of the door with him. Vassos got his gun out, but couldn't shake
Sue off his arm. He stopped trying when Babe hit him with the part of the
door that had the brass knob on it. Babe and Sue went away from Vassos'
together."
It's almost Dick-and-Jane prose, but undeniably effective.
"Fly Paper" has been my favorite Hammett short story since I first read it
in college. I brought a paperback copy of _The Big Knockover_ on a long
bus trip a few months later and practically forced the poor woman sitting
next to me to read the story after she finished her own book. She spent
the rest of the trip looking at me sideways, as if she wondered whether
she should leave her coffee cup within my reach. :)
Katherine Harper
Department of English
Bowling Green State University
Visit the W.R. Burnett Page at http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~kharper/
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