----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Sullivan" <
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net>
> "Of those who did learn something from them, who
writes as well as
> Chandler or Hammett?"
>
> Crumley at his best?
Crumley writes PI novels. Hunter and Leonard don't. Hunter
and Leonard have both broken new ground in crime
writing.
>
> "Is Chandler's dialogue superior to
Leonard's?"
>
> I see these as being so different that they can't be
compared.
I'd say that applies to the whole discussion, not just
dialogue. Why compare Leonard to Chandler at all? What on
earth are they supposed to have in common? Why is Leonard
supposed to be influenced by a writer of PI novels when he
writes from the other side?
> "Is PLAYBACK better than THE SWITCH?"
>
> Talk about setting up an unfair match. Plenty of
books, even by authors
> far less worthy than Leonard, are far better than
Playback (the only
> Chandler I've only read once). Out of curiosity, why
did you choose The
> Switch? Are you implying that was one of Leonard's
better books?
> Although I enjoyed it well enough, I wouldn't put it
in my top 5, or
> even 10, Leonards (none of which I've read more than
once).
THE SWITCH is very close to perfection, IMO. But my opinion
is exactly that, and no more. Reading is subjective. We look
for different things. For instance, it's a rare detective
novel that grabs my attention. I'm often distracted by
wondering what's going on in the criminal's mind. I end up
irritated and disappointed when I don't find out.
Al
-- # 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 : 29 Mar 2003 EST