>I think Lyons is one of the great underrated PI
writers of the last
>twenty-five years. I never understood why Parker
became so successful and
>Lyons remained obscure. Lyons is three times the
craftsman Parker is, even
>in his early years.
Three times? Gee.
Well, I like Lyons too. A lot. He's got off some of the
finest Chandleresque one-liners of the last few
decades.
But it's not like the success of Parker had any effect on
Lyons' success, except maybe helping him sell a few more
books (not enough, evidently, though). I've also heard Parker
sort of sideways-bashed in the same way during discussions of
Estlemen, Pronzini, Randisi and other P.I. writers of a
certain era. And in actual books by several of his
contemporaries. It's not one of the more admirable traits of
some members of the PWA.
Obviously, Parker's success rankles a lot of people in this
genre. And no, not everybody has to like his books. But his
success didn't prevent anyone else from succeeding, so the
regular griping from his peers usually comes off more as sour
grapes than anything.
Parker's big sin is he wrote books people liked to read. How
dare he! And he tinkered with the formula and put enough of a
personal and contemporary spin on it to bring in new readers,
without betraying its roots. Lyons, on the other hand, stuck
with the tried and true. His Acsh harks back more to the
traditions set down forty, fifty years ago. In his own way,
he's as anachronistic as Estleman's Walker, albeit from a
left-wing viewpoint.
So maybe that explains his success, at least partially. Lyons
wrote stuff people who already like this stuff will enjoy,
which is a fine thing. Hell, I'm one of them. Parker wrote
stuff that could appeal to those same folks, but he pushed
the boundaries a bit more, and appealed to new readers as
well. Which is also fine. And he did it with a prose style
that's very readable.
As for Erick's comment that Parker's stuff is cliché²idden? I
dunno. Half the cliché³ Parker's always accused of, he
popularized. He certainly took a few more chances with the
form than a lot of his contemporaries. No, they weren't
always successful innovations, but they sure were influential
in the genre. So somebody must have liked them.
--
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