Just finishing Kent Harrington's Dia de los Muertos-- good,
but not as good
as Dark Ride. I can't help but think that Harrington is in
some way trying
to pay homage to Under the Volcano, particularly with his
refrain "no se
puede vivir sin amar," and Calhoun's fever (which seems a
mirroring of the
Consul's DTs) but it's very distracting, it doesn't work, and
he's no
Lowry. Even so, his characters are believable, and it's an
entertaining
book. Volcano is a masterpiece, though it probably is neither
noir nor
boiled.
And speaking of the boiled vs. noir dichotomy-- where does
David Goodis fit?
His characters seem to get both treatments simultaneously.
The worst of both
worlds, and brilliantly.
Tom
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