From: Bill Bowers Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 08:10:36 -0500
> Then again, both Something About A Soldier _and_
Crumley's
> One to Count Cadence have a special resonance for
me; by
> the time I did my sabbatical at Clark AB, RPI (May
67 -
> Sept 68) things were a bit more "civilized" (the
only day
> we were "locked down" to base, that of Marcos'
second
> "re-election", everyone in the Filipino press was
very
> Thrilled there had only been something like 47
election-
> related deaths)
I'll have to check them out ... political corruption provides
the seeds for the hardboiled world. I was down in the Canal
Zone in '84 doing jungle ops ... real fun stuff, canal
crossings with sharks, stream crossings with crocs, jungle
marches with African Killer Bees, and sleeping on the ground
with all the various beasties after eating the nightly
mystery meat hot meal. But anyway, when we came in from the
jungle our liberty was shut down do to the recent election.
Several ballot boxes with votes in 'em were found after the
election. After a couple weeks in the jungle John Wayning an
M-60 even the base club is a welcome site though so the
disappointed wasn't that deep.
-- Anthony Dauer Alexandria, Virginia
Don't let the skirts fool you these aren't ladies, they're femme fatales ...
http://www.adau.net/judas_ezine/
-- -- Anthony Dauer Editor
Judas ... a stretch of the mean streets on the web.
http://www.adau.net/judas_ezine/ --
---------- Original Message ------------------------ From: Bill Bowers <BBowers@one.net> Reply-To: rara-avis@icomm.ca Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 08:10:36 -0500
>Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 05:58:48 -0800 >"Michael Robison" <zspider@gte.net> writes: >Subject: RARA-AVIS: something about a soldier > > >just finished willeford's _something about a soldier_. a tour de force of >commercial sex in pre-WWII phillipines. some interesting stories but i >can't really recommend it. the book ends very early in his life... i'd say >he's not even 20 yet, so there's no discussion of his literary career.
That's a strange leap of logic for not recommending a book. Of course there is no discussion of his literary career: this, and "Street" are the _basis_ for his later career, and much more apropos, in some ways, than the recent Dennis McMillan collection of Willeford's non-fiction.
Then again, both Something About A Soldier _and_ Crumley's One to Count Cadence have a special resonance for me; by the time I did my sabbatical at Clark AB, RPI (May 67 - Sept 68) things were a bit more "civilized" (the only day we were "locked down" to base, that of Marcos' second "re-election", everyone in the Filipino press was very Thrilled there had only been something like 47 election-related deaths) -- but when, decades later I first read the Willeford and the Crumley (along with Joe Haldeman's pre-Forever War Year), the sense of flashback was tangible.
The fact that all three books are a *lot* less _fiction_, or hyperbole, than you'd guess, makes them h-b, if not necessarily noir.
--- Bill Bowers | <BBowers@One.net> | mailto:BBowers@One.net
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