Anyway, Etienne Borgers comments that he places Ross
Macdonald in the third
echelon of writers he considers hard-boiled. Early last year
I read THE
GALTON CASE and I didn't think of it as hard-boiled. Nor
others that I have
read throughout the years. Then Mario comes along and
although he admits that
there are weaknesses in Macdonald's writing, still he is a
writer whom Mario
reads and rereads. What is one to think. I'm reminded of the
remark of an
early science fiction writer (I forget who; someone will
undoubtedly remember)
who said, "Science fiction is whatever I point at and say,
'that's science
fiction.'" Obviously we have here much the same thing. What
one person thinks
of as hard-boiled another thinks is not. By the way, I'd be
very interested
in hearing which writers Etienne places in the first and
second echelon, in
his view.
Rick Robinson checks in with some questions, the third of
which was the one
that I've been struggling with. Recently a bookshop owner
friend handed me a
novel and said, "If you want hard-boiled, try this." It was
John Sandford's
SUDDEN PREY. It really is a tough book, with some of the most
amoral
characters I've read in a while. But although it is written
with multiple
viewpoints, essentially it's a police procedural. I'm
wondering if there is
an consensus about whether a police procedural can be
hard-boiled. One person
has checked in with a resounding yes. Others may think that
the story must be
that of a private eye to be hard-boiled. That was the
impression I was left
with from reading those long ago messages at the beginning of
this discussion
group.
Finally, I can't chime in with anything concerning THE
DROWNING POOL. I have
no idea where my paperback copy is. I checked my county
library system with
49 libraries and though there are many Macdonald titles, THE
DROWNING POOL is
not one of them. I even tried the University Book Store in
Seattle, one of
our largest book stores and there was only one title, not
POOL. But I'm
certainly enjoying the discussion so far and look forward to
joining in on the
next book.
Thanks again for everyone's participation. I'm enjoying this
immensely.
Cheers - Frank Denton
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