Have you (or anybody) read any of Block's very early work?
Some of it
figures on the very disturbing side of hard boiled, such as,
bear with me I
just moved and can't find all my books, Such Men are
Dangerous and the
Specialists. There's one story in particular written with an
utterly cold
narrator who operates at an omniscient distance from the
character--very
reminiscent of Kosinki's Steps. The work from this period is
raw with none
of the polished edge found in the later work and with less of
an overall
filter on the horrors he describes.
David
______________________________
David A. Harvey
Freelance Columnist, Reviewer, Journalist&Editor
Exploring the meeting points of humanity&technology
1 Druim Moir Court 215/248-7469
Philadelphia, PA 917/767-6567 (cell/page)
19118
"Most people are awaiting Virtual Reality; I'm awaiting
virtuous
reality."
--Eli Khamarov , Lives of the Cognoscenti
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca [mailto:owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca]On
> Behalf Of William Denton
> Sent: Friday, August 14, 1998 11:33 PM
> To: rara-avis@icomm.ca
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: My name is Bill, and I'm a
Scudderholic
>
>
> I just finished Lawrence Block's _A Dance at the
Slaughterhouse_,
> which was very good. It's the one about the snuff
film, and it's also
> the one where Scudder meets T.J. for the first time.
I was surprised
> by the ending.
>
> _A Long Line of Dead Men_ is the only Scudder novel I
have left to
> read. I'd read four or five, then went back and
started from the
> beginning and read everything I'd missed. I managed
to read about
> every friend, like Elaine, Mick Ballou, Danny Boy,
T.J., and various
> cops, all before Scudder introduced them for the
first time. You
> don't really run into any trouble spoiler-wise if you
read them out of
> order, and they all stand alone, but if there's
anyone out there who
> hasn't read the series, I'd recommend starting at the
beginning. As
> someone else noted, the first three or four aren't as
good as the
> later ones, but they keep getting better. Block's a
very talented
> writer.
>
> Knowing I was running out of Scudder stories, I've
picked up a Chip
> Harrison book and a Bernie Rhodenbarr book. I'll see
how I like
> them. I also got two of his short story collections.
Block must be a
> happy man. It looks like everything he's ever written
is in print.
>
> Bill
> --
> William Denton | Toronto, Canada | http://www.vex.net/~buff/
> | Caveat lector.
> "Let's keep the party polite."
>
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