Re: RARA-AVIS: Don Herron's _Willeford_

Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Thu, 19 Feb 1998 13:20:11 +0000 > I know there are a lot of Willeford fans here, and you'll probably
> want to get the book. It has some good stories, a few pictures (the
> cover has a wonderful photo), and you get a good feel for what
> Willeford was like. There are also interesting facts, like Ross
> Macdonald's high reputation being created by a conspiracy between two
> writer-critics. They both liked his books, they thought he deserved
> more attention, so they got reviews of his new book into the NYT Book
> Review and Time. Next thing you know, he's third on the list of the
> best hardboiled writers behind Hammett and Chandler. I'd wondered why
> this was so, and now I know. However, we'll still have to wait for a
> real biography.

I am somewhat disappointed in the description that Bill gives of this
book. I was planning to buy it soon. As to Ross Macdonald's reputation,
I have been hearing rumors of such a "conspiracy" or shilling
arrangement for years; does Herron give the names of the critics and
some corroborating evidence? As an aside, I have noticed that John
Updike is always treated with kid gloves in the NYRB, for which he
works. Only the great novelist Robert Stone, in a recent review, has
dared suggest that all that glitters in Updike is not gold...Updike,
whom I view as something of a hack, has been the darling of so many
critics in the influential media that I continue to be shocked when I
read his fiction, which is pedestrian and thematically very narrow.

To get back on topic: which mystery writers besides Macdonald have
benefited from biased and exagerated favorable reviews?

Regards,

Mario Taboada
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.