<<I took the Willeford title to be a play on the
Trollope title, "The
Way We Live Now"--Trollope's longest novel, I believe, but
not too
hard-boiled, though there is a swindler doing some
stock-jobbing or
something.>>
Trollope's longest novel reads like something even longer...
I wonder if
Willeford ever lectured on this potboiler (which would make
his title an
act of revenge). Last year I trimmed my library, and one of
the many
satisfactions in doing so was getting rid of an almost
complete
collection of Trollope novels (it was nearly as much fun as
getting rid
of John Updike's and Philip Roth's novels and the works of a
well-known
and prolific female writer who occasionally doubles as
mystery critic,
though she emphatically denies being a genre writer).
In order to mitigate the offtopicity of this post, let me say
that I
much enjoyed George Pelecanos's novel _The Big Blowdown_, a
classy piece
of hardboiled fiction.
Also, since I enjoyed rereading Elmore Leonard's _Swag_ so
much, I
decided to go back to _Bandits_, of which I had only a vague
memory. So
far it's been really entertaining, with some great dialogue
as usual.
My copy of _Get Carter_ hasn't been delivered yet, so I'm
unable to
comment on our current assignment.
Regards,
mt
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