--- M Blumenthal <
blumenidiot@21stcentury.net> wrote:
> You're right about the order. I just looked at
my
> copy of the book which
> listed it third.
Every edition of the Spenser novels I've ever seen lists all
the books in order. However, some of them list them starting
with the most recent and others starting with THE GODWULF
MANUSCRIPT, the first book. The latter arrangement makes some
sense to me, being a pretty linear and orderly (my students
would read that as "anal retentive") guy, but the latter
confuses me no matter how many times I see them that
way.
> I do think the action around the world,
> the idea of hunting
> people to get them dead or alive, and most
important
> maybe, the addition of
> Hawk helped to distinguish it from many similar
p.
> i. series. It's been a
> long time since I read the books, but I do
remember
> in PROMISED LAND Hawk
> was Spenser's chief opponent. It's somewhat
like
> Hammett writing another Sam
> Spaade novel in which Casper Gutman and Spade
become
> allies.
Well, sort of. Hawk is employed by the delightfully named
King Powers, along with a guy named Macey or Macy who is sort
of an underworld accountant type. Parker uses Macy, who has
no code of honor, to differentiate Hawk, who does, from his
confederates. However, Hawk does more or less save Spenser at
the end of PROMISED LAND at Susan Silverman's urging, because
she seems to understand the common bond between the two men.
I think it's arguably the best scene Parker ever wrote.
In the
> following three or four books Hawk takes an
almost
> superhuman quality. I
> started getting disenchanted when Hawk
didn't
> magically appear from nowhere
> at the last minute to save Spenser.
I pretty much agree. I think that after THE WIDENING GYRE
(book ten) Parker consciously attempts to make Spenser into a
mythical character. He comes back from the dead by sheer will
in VALEDICTION (eleven) and reveals in A CATSKILL EAGLE
(twelve) that he is "not of woman born"--i.e., that his
mother died in an accident and he was taken by C-section
after her death. While I love the idea, and I really do, I
think Parker does a horrible job of it while simultaneously
forgetting the basics of what made Spenser popular AND
borrowing heavily from his earlier books until the whole
series becomes almost redundant.
Someone on here has said that the series went downhill when
Parker started seeing them on television. I don't know if
there's a causal relationship there, but the timing is just
about right.
G.
===== George C. Upper III, Editor The Lightning Bell Poetry
Journal http://www.lightningbell.org/
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