Gerald So wrote,
>
> I think Parker's published so regularly because he
wants to stay in the
> public eye. We've never said, "Where'd he go? I wish
he were still
> writing" about Parker. No doubt he was aware of
Chandler's dropoff and
> wanted to avoid a similar fate. And he may be
thinking, *If I can't
> avoid a dropoff, I'll at least avoid disappearing.*
On some level, he
> may believe he hasn't dropped off *because* he's
stayed in sight.
>
Gerald, I started partially rereading the early Parkers.
Except for The Judas Goat, I had never looked at them since I
first read them in the early and mid 70's. They reminded me
why I had so liked him. His later books had finally become so
annoying to me I had stopped reading him
As with baseball players, I think most authors peak.
Sometimes it's their first or second book because they had
something to say, said it and everything else is embroidering
on that. Other times they gain from experience so they can
compensate for that initial creative fire to lengthen to the
period they are writing their best, but eventually it seems
they must decline if they continue to write. When considering
a writer's career I think you have to consider the bad ones
as well as the best. I'm sure there are exceptions. I think
Donald Westlake, has pretty consistently written quality
books, but he has done that by writing stand alone books and
those in very unlike series.
Perhaps, Parker has started new series because he realizes he
really has written all he has to say about about Spenser, but
either financially he doesn't want to stop or has bowed to
his publishers who want a long series that will be presold.
Maybe he has tried to fully explore Hawk's origins as Robert
Crais did with Pike or kill off Susan as Healy did with Nancy
Meagher. All we can judge is those books in the Spenser
series that have been published.That is why the idea of
peak/career as a way to compare authors seemed ideal when I
thought of it. Mark .
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Nov 2001 EST