RARA-AVIS: RE: Parker criticism

From: Dick Lochte ( dlochte@home.com)
Date: 11 Nov 2001


I wonder if there's anybody out there as tired as I am of reading gripes about Parker's novels. If you don't like him, don't read him. I don't mind wearing out my declining eyesight skimming through effusive praise of Carroll John Daly or any number of, ah, writers of dubious stylistic value. They've made their contributions to the genre and deserve a little overpraise every now and then. Nobody ever seems to cut Parker any slack, even though he kept the private eye novel going through the roughest period of its history, never mind that he has influenced several of today's heroes of the hardboiled and created what has become a genre staple -- the sociopathic sidekick. Okay, so he insists on sticking in all that crap about Susan Silverman and the dog and he allows his hero a smugness that can set one's teeth on edge. With all of that, his books -- and his year he's published at least three -- are never less than entertaining and, every now and then, deliver a scene or set piece (usually a confrontation with a powerful adversary) that reminds you of what drew you to crime fiction in the first place.

Dick Lochte

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 11 Nov 2001 EST