I thought "It's a Hard World" was a small gem. Vachss sets up
the basic
situation, a man on the run, and uses first person narration
to build a
convincing escape for him. The victim is sketched in nicely,
a type we all
know and can fill out for ourselves. He's a "clown" and the
reader joins
the protagonist in "selecting" him for excecution. Better him
than... [We
don't care what the protagonist has done, either.] "...be
quick or be
dead," as the Blind Man prophetically says. A model of
efficient,
effective storytelling.
So which Burke novel should I pick up first if I want to read
more?
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
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