In a message dated 5/20/02 3:39:06 PM,
ForstaterM@umkc.edu writes:
<< I thought I'd ask rara-avians their view of how good
a job Parker did with Poodle Springs. >>
We've talked about this in the past,
but not for quite a while. My opinion is that Poodle Springs
demonstrates that Parker can indeed write something besides
Spenser adventures and "Wilderness," but that this was a task
that was best left "undone." If Chandler had finished the
book as Parker has, we would surely rank it near the bottom
of his pile of work.
Part of the problem is Marlowe as the
husband of a rich woman -- it takes some getting used to, and
I was never able (even after the sell out ending) to meld
this Marlowe into the one from the other novels. However,
most of the shortcomings of the work lie in the distance that
the writing in this apple and it's (characters and storyline)
have fallen from the tree. You won't walk away from a reading
of this one saying:
What a beautifully crafted
masterpiece. Truly incredible. How he came
up with line after line, I can't even
begin to give examples, I'd be
reproducing the whole book. The book
reads as if Chandler just sat down
and it poured out of him.
If "The Long Good-bye" represents
artistic genius, "Poodle Springs" is no more than journeyman
carpentry. The only semi-memorable lines I can recall from
the book is, "Victor was browsing through my cigarettes like
a goat through clover," and "The house that rose up before us
wasn't anywhere near big enough to hold all of California.
Probably not much more than the entire population of Los
Angeles comfortably."
Overall, It's pretty mediocre stuff for a Chandler
book.
Jim
Blue
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