Re: RARA-AVIS: Hard-boiled vs. soft


Mark Blumenthal (blumenidiot@21stcentury.net)
Sat, 6 Nov 1999 20:31:22 -0600


Juri complains,
 I think it's not funny anymore if a PI has problems paying his bills
> and stuff. Stuart M. Kaminsky's novels about Toby Peters are larded with
> Peters's fussying about the dirty clothes and unpaid bills and
> dyspepsia. What's the point?
>
Juri,

A lot of the fuss with bills and such also bothers me about the Peters' novels, but I realize they are more than hard boiled novels. They are historicals and Kaminsky feels he has to put all these details to establish his books are taking place in the late 1930's and 40's LA. Writing about the same time and place as did Chandler, his schlemiel of a protagonist may give us a revisionist view of Marlowe. Not all private eyes bravely walk the mean streets alone. Some fearfully stumble and take help wherever they can get it. Mark

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