Kevin Burton Smith wrote:
> I wrote:
> >empty mimicking that weakens Chandler's later
admirerers, like
> >Robert Parker.
> Empty mimicking? Spenser may be a lot of things, but
being a pale
> imitiation of Marlowe isn't one of them.
Well, that's what I thought when I read the one and only
Spenser in my life. Can't remember the title of it now. I
know some people like his books, but I found it only
pretentious. Spenser babbles about his morals, doesn't act
them out. And for some reason, I don't care to read about
making food in books that don't concern making food. (John
Lancaster's "A Debt of Pleasure" was just about that and
therefore I liked it - not the ending, though.)
I'm the first one to say that my knowledge of the Spenser
novels is limited, but the first contact with them was so
discouraging, I didn't want to explore further. And I must
add that I threw Parker in, because I couldn't at the time of
writing remember any other writer. I have the same feeling of
many eighties hardboiled writers: that they are empty
mimickers of Chandler.
Juri
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