James Rogers (jetan@ionet.net)
Wed, 27 Oct 1999 02:02:13 -0500
At 09:48 PM 10/26/99 -0400, Vicky wrote:
<cut all the stuff I agree with and which was expressed so
well>
>
>I don't find this kind of dichotomy in Hammett's
writing at all. To me,
>most of his women come across as characters first and
as women second, if
>that makes any sense, and I think that strengthens
his writing.
>
>Oh, and Martha--I'd say that The Dain Curse is the
weakest of Hammett's
>novels, but I still enjoy it. FWIW.
>
>
_DC_ is way the worst, yes, but I think a
lot of that had to do with the serial structure...i.e: it is
really three novelettes, very loosely linked, and one gets
the sense that the denoument, by which I mean the Whodunit,
was a sort of last minute deal.
I can see how a reader of DC might
get the idea that Hammett idealized women, though I seem to
recall a vividly realized, very unromantisized black maid in
the first section ( an early suspect?....I haven't re-read it
in several years).
James
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