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Re: RARA-AVIS: Any Mickey Spillane or Mike Hammer fans out
there??
Paul Ulucci wrote:
>
> Hi!
> I was just wondering if there was any Mike Hammer fans out there
> or if anyone has read "Black Alley"? I'm going to save it for summer
There certainly seem to be, judging from a fairly recent article in a
paperback collecting periodical (is it PAPERBACK PARADE? I forget
exactly--the hay fever I guess). I can read one Mike Hammer book a year,
but only one. BLACK ALLEY wasn't too bad. You can see the Jehovah's
Witness coming out in Spillane in it (Hammer still does not fornicate,
does not get drunk, though he has a fridge full of Lite beer for cops
and friends to sip), which is kind of refreshing. I notice he mentioned
a couple of trade names in the book several times (the beer and
something else); wonder if he gets a cut from the advertising
departments each time he does? What is nice is to see the best-selling
author of the 20th century still writing books like it was 1952. Have
you read a book about Hammer called ONE LONELY KNIGHT? It makes a pretty
good case for liking Spillane, whom people seem either to love or hate
(mostly hate). Certainly you can't ignore him, if for his incredible
book sales alone. I kind of appreciate Hammer on occasion, when I need
to delve into what life as an existential killing machine would be like.
I think my favorite Hammer episode was in another book in which he
rigged up the basement of a house full of his enemies with the light
bulb of a switched-on lamp locked against the clapper of an old-time
telephone bell. He turned on the gas jets of the basement stove full
blast, then crawled out the window, found his car, drove to a nearby gas
station with a phone, "and dialed that number." He found the resulting
explosion very satisfying.
Best wishes,
Richard King
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