Bob Toomey (btoomey@javanet.com)
Wed, 01 Dec 1999 00:24:57 -0500
hugh wrote:
> Hi:
>
> I just finished reading my first story by Fredric
Brown, "Obit for
> Obie," in the anthology "Pure Pulp." I loved the
story for several
> reasons, partly because it's about a newspaper
reporter, which is my day
> job. Does anyone know if Brown's short stories have
been anthologized?
> He has a wonderful ear for dialogue, and his prose
is lean and hard. The
> intro mentions three novels, "The Fabulous
Clipjoint," "The Screaming
> Mimi" and "The Far Cry," which I plan to seek out.
Any others worthy of
> mention?
Fredric Brown was the first adult writer I ever read. When I
was around nine, I found a copy of "Angels and Spaceships," a
science fiction collection, in a box in my uncle's basement.
My uncle was mainly into religion and flying saucers, and he
probably thought the book combined his interests. He must
have been very disappointed, but I thought Brown's stuff was
great, even if I didn't understand every word.
Don't skip Brown's fantasy and science fiction. It's the same
writer, the same style, but a lot looser. "What Mad
Universe," is a classic, maybe his best book, and special fun
for pulp fans. The hero is the editor of a science fiction
adventure mag, who gets blown into a universe as wild and
absurd as anything he's ever published. Brown manages to
parody the entire superscience genre and simultaneously write
a superior and very convincing superscience adventure story
of his own. "Martians Go Home," is roughly a thousand times
better and funnier than the movie version. The short stories
are also excellent, better on average than his mysteries.
Nearly all have been collected. Brown said he enjoyed writing
science fiction than mysteries and it shows.
Of his mysteries, "The Dead Ringer," the immediate sequal to
"Clipjoint," is a very good novel. It's a carnival story, a
background Brown knew something about, and it suits his taste
for the grotesque. It's also a lot lighter than
"Clipjoint." His other carnival novel, "Madball," is good but
grim. My own favorite, after "The Screaming Mimi," is "Night
of the Jabberwock," also a sort of carnival in the way it
puts logic through the hoops. Brown's mystery short fiction
has all been collected and the collections are expensive.
None are currently in print. Two came out during Brown's
lifetime and the rest were assembled in, I think, nineteen
volumes by Dennis McMillan. There's also a university press
"best of" collection. All worth having.
Fredric Brown was an iconoclast with a warped imagination, a
strong sense of humor and a common touch. He was one of the
best.
BobT
-- # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Wed 01 Dec 1999 - 00:18:55 EST