K. Harper (kharper@bgnet.bgsu.edu)
Wed, 30 Jun 1999 09:08:18 -0400
Jim Doherty wrote:
Have we ever done a Burnett
book? If not, how about *The Asphalt
Jungle*? Kathy Harper lauds it
as one of the best hard-boiled crime
novels ever written (and on the
evidence of the film version she's
probably right). Moreover,
Kathy's working on a dissertation on
Burnett, and it's possible one
of us might just come up with a new
insight that would help her.
(Not likely, I grant you, but possible).
And we'd have her highly
informed comments to enhance our enjoyment
of the book.
Thanks for the compliments, Jim, but I'd better jump in here
and explain something. I am not doing a dissertation on
Burnett: a few weeks ago, however, I finished writing a long
article about him for Volume 216 of the
_Dictionary of Literary Biography_. (Watch your library's
Reference section later this year.) I am writing a
dissertation, true, but not on a hard-boiled theme: it's an
annotated bibliography of the 2,000+ published writings of
Iowa-born humorist Ellis Parker Butler, the author of "Pigs
is Pigs." So, how many eggs do I lose for *that* one?
As to _The Asphalt Jungle_, I'm all for adding it to the
list. It truly is one of the greatest of the postwar crime
novels: a story of "best-laid plans" that go awry in the
blink of an eye. Burnett defines his Big Midwestern City in
merciless prose, which grows even more cutting as he moves
into the other two volumes of the trilogy, _Little Men, Big
World_
(1951) and _Vanity Row_ (1952). _The Asphalt Jungle_'s
characters are well defined and stay with the reader long
after s/he has put down the book---and I'll mention in
advance, for those who like to watch for such things, that
even the most minor character is driven by some obsession.
Notice which ones are obsessed with what and you'll have the
key to the whole novel.
(ObAuthors: Henry Edward Helseth. Julian Long. James A.
Martin.... Well? Has my Egg Quotient regained its previous
level?)
Now I've gotta slip back into lurkdom: I'm revising a paper
on a proper hard-boiled topic---the pulp magazine
_Flynn's_/_Detective Fiction Weekly_--for an upcoming
academic conference. Wish me luck!
Best,
Kathy Harper
Katherine Harper Department of English Bowling Green State
University kharper@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Visit the W.R. Burnett Page at http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~kharper/
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