Re: RARA-AVIS: RE: Pat Chambers

From: Ray Skirsky ( rskirsky@qualcomm.com)
Date: 07 Jun 2002


At 07:44 AM 6/7/2002 -0700, Dick Lochte wrote:

>BobT wrote:
>
><Heck, that half broke neon Miller Beer sign buzzing in the front window
>of my
>corner bar is a more interesting character than Pat Chambers.>
>
>Not having seen the broken sign, I'm willing to take your word for it.
>But let us not forget that prior to old Pat most cops in hardboiled
>novels were dumb antagonists. And those that weren't were not brimming
>over with personality. Think about Marlowe's pal, Bernie Ohls. Today,
>mirroring real life, just about every PI has a pal on the Force. Most of
>these are used primarily for exposition. If they have any more dimension
>than Pat, it's probably because today's PI novels are nearly double the
>size of Spillane's.

He's not hard-boiled, but there was always Inspector Cramer, Nero Wolfe's antagonist and sometime ally. While the individual Wolfe novels were short, the sheer volume allowed Cramer to become a more fully realized character.

ray

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