RARA-AVIS: Re: RARA-AVIS Digest V3 #926

From: marianne.macdonald@lineone.net
Date: 26 Oct 2001


>But it does seem out of step with what modern
>readers expect out of a mystery - comprehensible plot, extensive
>novel-length character development. Hammett's up-front characterizations
>are very good; the characters are colorful and have distinctive voices,
I like Red Harvest pretty well, and for more or less these reasons. I like the writing 'voice'. Any weaknesses in the book are compounded with The Dain Curse, which I re-read most of a little while ago. The episodic nature of that plot is much worse than in Red Harvest.

The Maltese Falcon might be the best of them partly because there is a clearer plot line and a relatively limited number of characters?
(Funnily enough, I can't read that because it was translated so wholly
[and so very verbatim!] into the movie, and I seem to know that more or less by heart. Weird.)

Marianne

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