RARA-AVIS: Women Rewriting the Hard-Boiled Tradition

From: Bill Hagen ( billha@ionet.net)
Date: 25 May 2000


Thought RA readers would be interested on these excerpts from a short review of a new book, found on a "Choice" card [published by the American Library Association to help acquisition staff in deciding which books to add to a collection].

The book is Priscilla L. Walton and Manina Jones' _Detective Agency: Women Rewriting the Hard-Boiled Tradition_ (U. Calif. Press, 1999).

"The authors of the present volume explore how women writers, positioning professional female detectives in the world of contemporary crime, have reimagined the hard-boiled novel, challenging not only the patriarchal culture that defines these fictional worlds but the linguistic, intellectual, and narrative paradigms that traditionally have shaped the genre. ...focuses on leading writers such as Paretsky, Grafton, and Muller while considering an ample range of titles by other practitioners. ...[it] provides a deft analysis of the political and economic role of the genre's readership. ...the engaging prose will draw in undergraduate and general readers as well as scholars. Highly recommended."

There you have it, including a reference to "readership" (Who, us?). Anyone looked at this book?

Bill Hagen
< billha@ionet.net>

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