Mark Sullivan:
<<There is a bit more depth to Spade, though it's
mostly hinted at, but he, too, is defined by his
professionalism -- what a man must do for his business
partner, even if he doesn't like him. So it's
business, not personal.>>
That may be Hammett's greatest limition, which at the same
time is his great strength. There's a lot more to any
person's life than a profession. Hammett is a cipher, the
exact opposite of his contemporary, Hemingway, who regularly
bared his soul (even to the point of being accused of
narcissism), and who wrote so much autobiographical
stuff.
They share a style (only up to a point: Hemingway could wax
verbose) but the world that Hammett presents to the reader is
much narrower, probably too narrow to get him into the Great
Lit list or to appeal to the non-hardboiled reader -- there
are some of those, believe it or not.
And for Betsy: "The Tree-Killing Pattersons" would be a great
title for a pulp story of the raunchy variety.
Regads,
MrT
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