Raymond Chandler - A Biography by Tom Hiney
Approx one year ago I red the UK Vintage edition
(1998) of this book. Very "mixed" feelings about it...
First, if you do not know about Chandler's life and ignore
his letters, the book is a rather good introduction-
providing you know at least most of his novels. It's more of
the journalism vein than a real literary biography, and most
of the reported facts were available somewhere else.
Further, it does not seem that Hiney tried to contact the
surviving "privileged" witnesses of Chandler's life (or
people having really met him), so no real new angle. The
alcoholism of Chandler takes a too important place in Hiney's
explanation of the author's personality
(IMHO)
Except for some in his chapter notes, there is no real
bibliography about what Hiney searched as preparation. No
Chandler's bibliography either.
Annoying: some gross factual mistakes in the text- I lost
part of my reading notes, so I cannot give a precise example-
but some of it was of an equivalent of confusing the "Maltese
Falcon" as being by Chandler. Also, some brief citations from
Chandler's letters or documents are isolated from their
context and are hastily presented with decisive but arguable
conclusions (sometimes by ignoring other documents that could
give another understanding of Chandler's attitude or
thinking!).
Hiney: definitely not "the" biography...
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
--- William Denton <
buff@pobox.com> wrote:
> I picked up the Hiney/MacShane collection
of
> Chandler's letters today--it
> looks really good. The local monster
bookstore
> where I first looked
> didn't have it, but it did have Hiney's bio
of
> Chandler that came out a
> couple of years ago. What's the word on it? I
read
> MacShane's, but more
> than 10 years ago, and can't remember many
details
> of the life, although
> most of the high and low points stick out.
Does
> Hiney take a different
> tack, or have new information?
>
> Bill
> --
> William Denton : Toronto, Canada :
> http://www.miskatonic.org/
: Caveat lector.
>
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