Will wrote:
>How about Caleb Carr's the Alienist? I thought
that
>was fairly HB. (Whatever that means)
This is an interesting question, because I can see both sides
of it. Carr's book does have a lot of elements of hard-boiled
- violence, corruption, a generally negative view of human
nature, and a somewhat lazy dissolute journalist narrator who
fits well into the HB ethos. On the other hand, HB is about
style as well as substance, and The Alienist is written in a
sort of faux-late-Victorian style with a lot of "if we had
but only known what dire fate awaited us. . ." Stylistically,
it's much closer to Conan Doyle mixed with more than a touch
of Gothic horror, than to Raymond Chandler.
Worth reading in any case. Some things about this book drove
me absoutely crazy (reminds me of Tolkien in the sense that
the high style often reads as self-parody, while I get the
feeling that the author is taking it completely seriously),
and there's some downright silly melodrama, but certainly a
very compelling read, interesting characters, and a
completely convincing and eye-opening picture of urban life
in the late 19th century. I'd like to see Carr try a Ripper
book.
"Angel of Darkness" is Carr's second book; it's been out for
some time and, though I haven't read it, I understand it
involves some of the same characters but a different
narrator. His recent book "Killing Time" is, I think, a
science fiction book not related to the previous two.
Incidentally Carr is the son of Lucien Carr, the Beat writer,
who apparently left his son with a lot of emotional baggage.
I read an interview, though I don't remember where (might
have been Salon, you can probably find it with a websearch),
in which Caleb discusses his embrace of William James'
psychological/philosophical theories as a complete rejection
of the philosophy of the Beats. I imagine that he would
consider it a compliment to be considered a 19th century
throwback.
Somebody who really does write historical HB is Mark Graham;
his series
(includes "The Resurrectionist" and "The Black Maria") is set
in late 19th century philadelphia and draws on some true
crimes of the day, including some that Carr uses in "The
Alienist." I frankly didn't like the series much, though "The
Black Maria" won the "paperback original" Edgar last year, so
at least somebody disagrees with me. His research at least
seems to be pretty good.
Carrie
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