We're wrapping up (finally) our trip through the history of
hardboiled and noir writing. This month it's the nineties and
the oughts, up to today, and beyond.
The early 1990s was when my reading in the area really picked
up, thanks to a combination of Black Lizard reprints, working
in a bookstore, and then the Internet, newsgroups, and later
this mailing list. The list has been a fantastic source of
reviews and recommendations, and I've jotted down many names
and titles. The ones I've read, I've almost all liked. The
ones I haven't read, I'm looking forward to. Thanks to you
all. The Internet has been an immense help because it's so
easy to find bibliographies and reviews now, and to order out
of print books. The average person used to have a hard time
finding OP books, or sometimes even just getting a list of
all the books in a series. The entire history of the genre is
now easily accessible, and I hope it means authors and
stories are rescued from obscurity and that more reprints are
done (such as the BLACK MASK anthologies that Crippen and
Landru are doing). Who knows--publishing on demand could take
off and then we'll all be able to buy the complete works of
Norbert Davis, or the whole series of Hardman books by Ralph
Dennis, just by pushing a button.
Now, as before, when it comes to making a list of good
writers who started working in since 1990, my mind goes
blank. I can think of two favourites, though: George
Pelecanos and Jason Starr. I'd buy anything new from them on
sight. I think they're two of the best American writers
working today. And I'm very happy that Donald Westlake's
persona of Richard Stark came back--it means new Parker
books, and reprints of the old ones, which are expensive and
hard to find even with all the online used bookstores.
Dennis Lehane is a respected new name, but I haven't read his
last two or three books, even though MYSTIC RIVER got great
reviews. I really liked Michael Connelly's first books, and
how he brought Chandler into modern LA, but his last few have
been quite poor. Of writers that kept on through the '90s,
there are Robert Parker (disdained by most on the list),
Loren Estleman, James Ellroy, and others that you'll have to
fill in. When did Ian Rankin start writing?
Who are the writers that started in the '90s and look like
they'll put out good work for the next few decades? Who's
done just one or two books but looks like a goer? With these
new writers, lots of anthologies and reprints, and everything
else, is this a high point for hardboiled and noir
writing?
When I pull down my copy of Geoffrey O'Brien's HARDBOILED
AMERICA (1981), good as it is, it's full of holes and the
books he talked about were mostly unavailable. Now there are
complete biographies on people he could only find a few
pages' worth of material for, and Jim Thompson and David
Goodis are in print (not enough of Charles Willeford's stuff
is easy to get, though). All the old stuff is well-documented
and mostly easy to find, and some of the new stuff is
absolutely killer.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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