Hi Maura,
My quibble with Pelacanos is not that
he includes detail, but that he includes detail for its own
sake, long after it has stopped revealing the personalities
and motives of his characters, and long after it has been
necessary for an understanding of the story. Maybe he does it
because he loves writing it, but he certainly doesn't do it
because the reader or the story need it. It seems self
indulgent to me, and as with so many of his characters, all
style.
I find that I keep wanting to say to
him, "Okay, I got it. I understand who these people are, how
they are hooked up to each other, and what is going on. I
don't need five more examples of it and another 10 pages that
don't move the story an inch."
He loves his characters (as do I),
but I come to his books to be taken for a trip on an express,
and he puts me on a local. He'd be better off if he had a
little more Hammett in him, but then, wouldn't we all?
Jim
Blue
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