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Re: RARA-AVIS: Dorothy B. Hughes, Anyone?
I love Ride The Pink Horse. I just bought the Dell paperback a week ago,
coincidentally. I much prefer RTPH to In a Lonely Place, which is
an interesting psychological portrait but a pretty boring story. RTPH is
smoldering and tough, and its being set on the border adds culture clash
to the more conventional hardboiled elements, and somehow really
emphasizes the social alienation of the main characters. Lots of racist
language shooting through the novel, though the novel seems implicitly
critical of such perspectives -- racist talk as evidence of ignorance,
fear, alienation, powerlessness. It's been a while since I read it.
I'm teaching a course called "From Pulp to Paperback: American Crime
Fiction 1920-60" next Winter, and I thought RTPH might be one of the
novels I teach, though I wonder whether it might be too complex or
disturbing for your average Michigan sophomore. Anyway, it's a wonderful
novel, and it's great to read someone whose books don't seem to be carbon
copies of one another. Michael
----------------------------------------------------------
Michael D. Sharp, Dept. of English, University of Michigan
(msharp@umich.edu)
"Weaseling out of things is good to learn. It's what separates us from the
animals . . . . . . . . except the weasel." -- Homer J. Simpson
On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Richard L. King wrote:
> Has anyone ever read anything by Dorothy B. Hughes? I'm about half-way
> through one called RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1946) and I thought I'd report
> it is definitely in the hard-boiled category. There is no overt violence
> so far, but there is a tension that something is about to explode as
> Chicago tough-guys are congregating in a small western town in the
> middle of a Fiesta. They are definitely out of their element here far
> from the streets of the Windy City as they come into contact with a
> western, Native-American, and Spanish-speaking culture. A crooked U.S.
> Senator and his fixer are meeting and have a clash over money while a
> Chicago homicide detective has also shown up. There is a lot of
> discussion about a previous murder, and as I said, everything is about
> to explode. So far: recommended for hard-boiled and noir fanciers, like
> myself. Can anyone recommend any other Hughes works?
>
> Richard King
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