I, too, suggest anyone who hasn't try THE EXECUTIONERS, which
is way the hell better than either of the two CAPE FEAR
movies, and takes about ten pages iirc (so it's not much of a
spoiler) for the parents threatened by the bright and
relentless ex-con to decide they must kill the SOB
themselves, and thus (not without reservations) become the
executioners of the title...a point neither film can bring
itself to.
I forget whom I first read who suggested that Travis McGee
was a Rotarian's idea of being a hippie, but I enjoy the TMcG
novels nonetheless (though I agree the musing-lectures can be
a bit self-indulgent; I prefer them to the more terse and
more obnoxious similar observations made by Mickey Spillane,
among others). Surely no one's going to suggest that the
characters are excessively quirky compared to, say, Andrew
Vachss's, among many other successors'...
-----Original Message----- From: Kent Westmoreland [mailto:
kentwestmoreland@hotmail.com] While we're on the subject
of non-McGee novels, I recommend "The Executioners" which is
the basis for the great Robert Mitchum/Gregory Peck film CAPE
FEAR, which in turn spawned the much weaker 1990's remake
with DeNiro and Nolte
----Original Message Follows---- From: Etienne Borgers <
freeweb@rocketmail.com> Juri, you red the "wrong"
novels by John D. MacD.
You have to try something written before his McGee series,
series that was inferior in many ways to his earlier works.
Only 2 or 3 of the McGee series are of higher standard
(series easy to spot, as the English title always carries a
name of a different color) . This McGee series was an attempt
to broaden his readership when HB was already losing ground
in the US(his and by other writers)and the public luuve
serials with recurrent characters. Commercially it was a
great success, but unfortunately it shadowed almost entirely
his earlier novels for the American public after the 60's
(that were also successful, but mainly with different
readers).
--- Juri Nummelin <
jurnum@utu.fi> wrote:
> On Fri, 30 Mar 2001
marianne.macdonald@lineone.net
> wrote:
>
> > >I just began to wonder whether you were
really
> talking about John D.
> > >MacDonald. I have trouble reading
him.
> > Hi, Juri. I was curious to know why. I've
just
> gone back to Travis
> > McGee (after about 30 years <g>) and
realised how
> much I like the series.
>
> I have had problems with his characters who seem
to
> be eccentric only
> for eccentricity's sake (McGee's partner,
whatever
> his name is, McGee's
> strange and peculiar habits (I just hate his
Rolls
> Royce turned into a
> pick-up)), with his language that is
forcedly
> relaxed and with his
> dialogue that is filled up with long
monologues
> about life, politics and
> none-too-bright wisdom. MacDonald babbles.
That's
> the main problem.
>
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 02 Apr 2001 EDT