Re: RARA-AVIS: and what are you reading?

MT (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Sun, 30 Aug 1998 21:23:25 -0500 Dave:

<<What am I reading? (if you really want to know)>>

Of course I do. We've had this type of discussion several times. Since
people read all kinds of things, it can open up interesting impromptu
discussions.

You are lucky to be discovering Ross Macdonald's work. His books are
"all the same" and at the same time not the same, always in interesting
ways. My favorite is probably "The Chill", followed by "The Underground
Man". Every time he's mentioned here, all sorts of opinions come up
(from the very positive to the quite negative). Personally, I have
cooled my enthusiasm about him a bit, but I am still grabbed immediately
by his books, no matter how many times I've read them.

As to Burke, I am a fan and have a very high opinion of him. It seems
clear to me that he is a truly hardboiled writer (as much in his
Robicheaux novels as in the rest of his work), one of the finest. Again,
you'll find that there's raravian disagreement on this.

Over the years, I've become disappointed with the Spenser series. The
plots have become thin, Spenser himself went from PI to IP, and I don't
much like Susan and Spenser's conformist and self-satisfied (almost
yuppie) attitude. But the first three or four books were and are really
good, and the man can write, no question about it. The decline of the
Spenser series may be due to "market conditions", as they say.

Regards,

MT
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