Kevin Burton Smith wrote:
> What? You guys don't cook? Tsk-tsk.
I cook, every day, but I don't like to read about it in a
book that doesn't have a cook or some other person involved
in food making as one of its protagonists.
> Citing old, and in some cases pretty obscure or
minor eyes such as
> Bill Lennox, John Smith and Ed Rivers (and you could
toss in Carney
> Wilde, Pete Schofield, Jim Bennett and Johnny
Marshall) as P.I.'s in
> steady relationships does nothing to diminish the
impact or influence
> of Parker creating a viable, long-term, steady
relationship between
> two people that goes beyond having someone around to
do the cooking
> and the laundry.
It's just boring to read. I've said this before, but for some
reason I haven't come across a P.I. novel that tells about
these things as good as some mainstream novels. If I want to
read about the protagonist's human affairs, I prefer, say,
Doris Lessing.
> But even mentioning the two or three rough chapters
Chandler wrote of
> "Poodle Springs"is really stretching it. It would
have been
> interesting to see where Chandler took it, but he
died.
Yeah, I know it was stretching. For some reason I've always
like those "rough" chapters and feel really sorry that
Chandler didn't finish them.
> As for
> Michael Shayne, that cookin' fool, yeah he was
married through the
> first six or seven books in the series, but that
certainly didn't
> last long, did it?
Because she died.
> Look, I know Parker isn't for everyone, but like it
or not, he put
> his mark on the last twenty or thirty years of crime
fiction,
> particularly the detective novel, in ways that few
others have.
You mean that when I say I don't like the books it's like
saying I don't know they have a great influence? That's not
what I meant. I just meant I don't like the books. Or book
actually. Maybe I'll have to read another one. It's just that
having read tons of paperbacks for my bibliography I feel
like detaching from the genre. Currently I'm reading Sir
Bertrand Russell's memoirs. Can you beat that?
Juri
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