Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Poodle Puddle, and Chandler Drippings

Jim Beaver (JUMBLEJIM@prodigy.net)
Mon, 29 Mar 1999 08:20:51 -0800 >Gee, the reason POODLE SPRINGS sounds more like Parker than Chandler might
>be that Parker wrote almost the whole thing. Chandler left behind only the
>first four chapters or so, and I thought Parker (already hardboiled's
>favorite whipping boy) did a reasonably good job, considering that no
>matter how good a job he did, he was bound to be trashed for it. And the
>byline DOES read by Raymond Chandler AND Robert B. Parker.

Don't get me wrong. I liked reading POODLE SPRINGS, and I'm well aware that
most of it was written by Parker, and that therefore it must, by needs,
contain more of his voice than Chandler's. I just prefer Chandler's, no
matter how impossible it is to get new writing from him nowadays. I did not
and would not trash Parker for the effort, which I thought was honorable and
mildly successful. It's just that Chandler and Parker have, to my ear, very
distinct voices, and Parker was attempting to work as closely to Chandler's
as possible in this instance, was he not? I simply felt that he did not
mask himself in the midst of his Chandler-impression enough for the work to
be fully successful as "almost Chandler." Perhaps I'm wrong, but I suspect
that was Parker's goal. I liked the book. I liked the movie maybe even a
tad more.

Jim Beaver

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