Mickey Spillane began his hugely successful career in the
1940s but I've always thought of him as a 1950s writer.
Still, our celebration of the 40s gave me a good reason to
revisit a writer who wowed me when I discovered him during my
teen years. It is always dangerous to revisit old loves but I
felt confident that while I might be more critical of some
aspects, the primal power would remain and carry me over the
rough spots.
So it was an immense disappointment to reread I, THE JURY
(1947) and discover that while this was an incredibly
influential novel, it isn't a very good novel. Here are the
positives. The character of Mike Hammer as an avenging force
is crudely but powerfully laid out in the opening chapter. It
is so different from the heroes of the time that it may be
impossible to appreciate fully in 2002 the impact on the
field. The novel lurches forward for a few chapters before
Spillane hits a nice page-turning pace. Unfortunately, the
reader must ignore a strained plot, poorly realized scenes
and most of all, very crude, clumsy writing. Hammer is a dolt
who simply keeps interviewing people while one by one each is
killed. His sudden swoon as a love sick puppy professing
life-long love for someone he has just met is just not
convincingly presented. I can and do accept Mike Hammer as a
romantic but that does not mean I want to see him portrayed
like a character in an Archie comic.
What saves I, THE JURY is the ending, which more than
fulfills the promise of the opening. More than the concept of
the ENDING, which is legendary, the way he drives it home in
those final pages is masterful. There, at the very end, I
rediscovered Spillane I remembered.
Well, I must say that it bothered me to have such a powerful
icon of my youth diminished. Thinking back to the late 1950s
and very early 60s, I remembered that I, THE JURY was one of
the last Hammer novels I read. The first two Hammer novels I
ever read I stole from the shelves of the local drug store.
It made reading them even more of a guilty pleasure. I don't
have them handy to check but I am reasonably certain that the
first two were MY GUN IS QUICK and ONE LONELY NIGHT. I think
it is Gun that opens with Hammer going into a bar on a rainy
night and makes conversation with a whore who calculates
whether his change on the bar is worth the go. Whoa! This
ain't a story out of Vacation Bible School.
And I loved Hammer pounding his enemies without mercy but
with a basic fairness (you swing and miss and I then get to
crush your nose and cheekbones). I loved the way he bought "a
deck of Luckies" from the newsy and tapped one out to light
it. Man, it took me three decades to shake the results of
that impression! And here was a real disappointment about the
rereading. Luckies were not mentioned in the 40th Anniversary
edition of the novel. I do not have my older copy handy to
see if the earlier editions had the brand specific
mentions.
So unwilling to let this disappointment stand I roamed the
bookstores of Atlanta (where I have spent the last few days)
for more Spillane. I wanted vintage Spillane, not Tiger Mann
or any of the recent Hammers. At last I found VENGEANCE IS
MINE (1950) and friends I am happy to report that here is the
real Mike Hammer. Here is the guy, who unlike other PI's who
may threaten to shoot a hoodlum, just shoots 'em! You don't
think I'll shoot you, Blam!! goes old Betsy and the guy has a
new hole. He does this and you believe in him every step of
the way. Spillane is confident and in control of the plot and
the character and is driving this one all the way home.
VENGEANCE is almost a sister novel to I, THE JURY. Certainly
it has the whammo ending that is second only to JURY in its
power. More than that the plots are very similar. In both, a
friend of Hammer's is killed and Mike, by damn, is going to
avenge them. JURY is more personal, more directly
revenge-driven. In VENGEANCE Hammer's connection to the
victim is not as close but added in is the feud with the DA
who lifts Hammer's PI and gun licenses in the first chapter.
I could say that JURY is to VENGEANCE what Woolrich's THE
BRIDE WORE BLACK was to RENDEZVOUS IN BLACK but that might be
carrying it too far.
In any case, I bid good-bye to 1940s month with I, THE JURY
and welcome in the 1950s with VENGEANCE IS MINE, a much, much
better example of Mike Hammer in his prime.
Richard Moore
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