Kevin Burton Smith wrote of George Pelecanos' frequent
references to music tastes:
"...it's certainly a lot more honest than all these allegedly
middle-aged detective characters now who seemingly only
listen to music from the jazz era, or make it a point of
pride that they know nothing of the popular culture of their
own time."
As always, Kevin raises an interesting point. However,
speaking as the author of one of those jazz-and-40s
pop-loving middle-aged PI's, let me say that a lack of
honesty isn't the problem. It has more to do with the
longevity of the series. The book that introduced my
fifty-ish hero Leo Bloodworth was written in '84 and
published in '85. Born in the '30s, Leo would have grown up
listening to Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael and Louis
Armstrong, etc. In the Bloodworth fiction I write these days,
mainly shorts and novelettes, I could carry him into his
eighties, which may be a little limiting, but I prefer to
keep him in his middle years. Even if I wanted to, I don't
think I could update his sensibilities, however. So, honest
or not, he's not going to be trading in his Cab Calloway
records on Snoop Dogg mini-CDs.
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