pabergin (pabergin@gte.net)
Sat, 14 Aug 1999 10:39:41 -0400
Mbdevlin asks:
<<Is there anyone today who is using
humor/screwballness like Latimer? I'm thinking of something
that is quite violent, bleak, etc., but also damn funny.
>>
Two that come immediately to mind are rara-avis' own Fred
Willard's DOWN ON PONCE and Tim Dorsey's debut novel, just
out from Morrow, FLORIDA ROADKILL. Tim is (predictably) being
compared to Carl Hiaasen and Larry Shames, but readers who
can get past that sort of tripe will discover a writer who is
far angrier and nastier than either, and a hell of a lot
funnier to boot. PB
-----Original Message----- From: Mbdlevin@aol.com <Mbdlevin@aol.com> To:
rara-avis@icomm.ca
<rara-avis@icomm.ca>
Date: Friday, August 13, 1999 12:57 AM Subject: RARA-AVIS:
Latimer and Ted Lewis, Again
>I couldn't find "The Dead Don't Care" (a line also
incidentally used as a
>refrain in an essay by Thomas Lynch, the
poet/undertaker who won the [U.S.]
>National Book Award a few years ago--he has to be
hard-boiled--he's an
>undertaker, after all)--so I read "Headed for a
Hearse" instead. It's not
as
>good as "Lady in the Morgue," but still is great fun.
It also falls under
>that earlier discussed genre--the locked-room
hard-boiled crime novel.
>There's also an unforgettable scene where Crane uses
some gangland thugs to
>torture a guy for information--with a chrome
lemon-squeezer on the hand.
Is
>there anyone today who is using humor/screwballness
like Latimer? I'm
>thinking of something that is quite violent, bleak,
etc., but also damn
>funny. I've heard that publishers are pretty wary of
humor in hard crime
>novels.
>
>Could someone briefly fill in a few quick blanks on
Ted Lewis again. I
just
>read a book called "GBH," which I take it is the same
as "Grievous Bodily
>Harm." My copy has copyright 1980 by Lewis' estate.
Was it published
>earlier (and before or after "Get Carter")? GBH is
not as good as "Get
>Carter," but it's pretty strong. It's ending falls
off, relying, as best
as
>I could surmise, on a little literary legerdemain
(patterns and repetitions
>that only make sense within the context of the book)
and madness. Did I
miss
>something? Also, could someone on the other side of
the pond briefly
inform
>me/the list about pornography laws in the UK. Most of
what the protagonist
>produces--not the snuff films of course--would be
perfectly legal and big
>industry here in the U.S. (at least now and for about
three+ decades?)?
>
>Doug
>--
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