RARA-AVIS: Re: career and peak

From: Gerald So ( gso@optonline.net)
Date: 19 Nov 2001


Bob,

I meant that characters in the PI genre have become better rounded with time. Most of today's PI writers don't give themselves free rides by saying, "My character can get away with [whatever], he's not real after all."

I don't find Marlowe that real, but as I said in a previous post, that maybe *my* age coming into play. You can *tell me* Chandler is the P.I. King of Wit and Poetry. I won't see it any more than readers will like Spenser on my say-so.

Bottom line about this teacher-student thing: Yes, Parker was inspired and influenced by Chandler, but he took Spenser in his own direction. In fact, I don't see them in competition. I see Parker telling his own stories just as Healy, Crais, and Lehane do. I prefer to judge whether authors perform to their own potential. By his last two books, Chandler wasn't.

Gerald

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