I thought I'd mostly sit this one out, my knowledge of UK
noir being somewhat limited. I was a little surprised to
realise that I'd read more than I originally thought,
although still barely touching the surface. I have yet to
read Russell James or David Peace, for example, both of whom
have been highly recommended by people such as Al Buchan
& other gentlefolk of good taste so they are both high on
my list of books to look out for. The new edition of Kersh's
NIGHT & THE CITY is a major priority also - I think that
one's been out of print for yonks & I do love the movie
version, one of the greatest films noir ever made. I've read
3 by Ted Lewis: GET CARTER (aka JACK'S RETURN HOME) which is,
IMO, a stone classic.I think I like the film version even
more, with Michael Caine as a magnificently reptilian Carter
& the decaying industrial landscape of Newcastle, which
stands in for what I think was meant to be a small Yorkshire
town in the novel. One of the prequels, JACK CARTER'S LAW,
was OK but just not in the same league. GBH (aka GRIEVOUS
BODILY HARM) is a major improvement. Written in a more
"literary" style than the Carter books, which I recall as
being pretty hardboiled (with a Brit accent) in style, it's
just as dark & tough & grim. Everyone should read GET
CARTER - it'll certainly let you know if you want to read his
other stuff. I've read 3 books by Derek Raymond (aka Robin
Cook) also, I think. From memory: I WAS DORA SUAREZ; HOW THE
DEAD LIVE; HE DIED WITH HIS EYES OPEN. His books are hard to
read they are so raw & not a lot happens plot wise. I
know a lot of the folks here can't get into him (&
conversely there are more than a few who rate him extremely
highly). As I've said here before, I find these books very
moving. Someone said about David Goodis that every time he
finished one of his books he became seriously bummed out. I
know just how he feels. I also feel like that when I read
Raymond (& Donald Goines, when it comes to it). THE
BERLIN NOIR TRILOGY by Philip Kerr is a remarkable
achievement. Raymond Chandler in Nazi Germany.Much better
than it could have been. It's a tough one to pull off, but
Kerr does it. The Teutonic Chandlerisms are so thick in the
first volume, for me it was a serious irritation. Luckily,
the first novel , MARCH VIOLETS, transcends its faults &
the other 2 novels in the trilogy lose the flippancy &
Chandlerphors overkill of the first novel. Chandler-style
quips would be somehow obscene in the context of the
holocaust. THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT by James Curtis dates from the
1930's & is a nice piece of vintage English hardboiled
fiction, set amongst the world of lorry drivers & hookers
who travel the lorry routes plying their trades. DIRTY
WEEKEND by Helen Zahavi came highly recommended by the late
Derek Raymond. A nice dose of post-feminist noir. I'm
surprised that there aren't more books like this - noir would
seem to be the perfect vehicle for expressing female anger
with male brutality. Aside from the aforementioned film
version of GET CARTER, the next great Brit noir/hb film would
have to be THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, starring Bob Hoskins as a
Cockney gangster who gets into a pissing contest with the IRA
with fairly predictable but still thrilling results. The
Brits also made some great hardboiled television around the
1980's in particular.(In fact TLGF was originally made for
television but released theatrically, IIRC). I recall one TV
show called OUT, which was about the return from gaol of a
hardcase named Frank, IIRC again, who was
"stitched up" by a coalition of bent coppers & rival
crims, the series following his trail as he tracked down
those responsible. Another was a four-partner (I think)
called LAW AND ORDER which followed the progress of one small
case, a career petty crim, again stitched up by a bent
copper, who was brilliantly portrayed by whoever it was. Each
episode touched on the case while following a different
individual in each episode,: The Policeman's Tale; The
Judge's Tale, The Thief's tale etc. I don't know if the Brits
aren't making as many of these shows anymore or they just
aren't as good as they once were. With THE SOPRANOS it looks
like the US has hit the forefront in terms of tough,
hardboiled styled TV shows.
Rene
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 02 Jul 2002 EDT