On Fri, 24 May 2002 12:33:45 -0700 "Ron Clinton" <
clinton65@att.net> writes:
> > about 20 pages into the book i was thinking i
wasn't going
> > to be able to finish it. the dialogue wasn't so
hot and
> > it was obvious the characters were never going
to amount to
> > much more than unbelievable, shallow,
two-dimensional props
> > for the plot.
>
> I just finished TOGETHER WE KILL, the new Spillane
short-story
> collection
> put out by Five-Star. For the most part, pretty good
stuff...but
> when I
> tried taking that rediscovered enthusiasm to an
older Spillane
> novel, the
> enthusiasm didn't seem to sustain.
>
> Perhaps Spillane -- for some of us -- is a dish best
served in
> small
> portions.
Well, I'm probably being guilty of defending what is, after
all, only my opinion on Spillane, but he is hardly an
expansive author who bites of more than he can chew. For me,
his stories are direct and to the point, and he has no
artifice whatsoever. And, as someone who in general has read
alot of the largely generic crime fiction of that time, I
think he stands well out of the crowd.
And as for small doses, I feel that way about most crime
fiction. I recently got a Hammett omnibus out of the library,
and after reading the Glass Key and Dain Curse, I really felt
like I didn't want to read any more Hammett for awhile. As I
said, these are all just opinions, and I don't think any one
opinion is more 'defensible' than another, but I have to say
I am really surprised that there is, what appears to be, such
a lukewarm reception to Spillane, because I have always found
him to be exceptionally good at what he does.
I have always felt there are two types of stories in the
'thriller' genre
(which, to me, includes HB crime fiction, spy fiction, and
the like). 1. The type of mystery where the plot is the star,
and the characters are merely ways of moving the plot along
(Many Christie novels fall into this category -- they are
more like puzzles, rather than stories). 2. The type of
mystery where the protagonist is the star and the plot is
merely a way to show the protagonist expressing his/her
rather unique viewpoint/language/thoughts/feelings. I would
put Hammer in this category, as I would Chandler, Hammet, Jim
Thompson. The fun of the story is in the telling, not in the
plotting.
randy
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