"But I think the distinction that should be made, and that's
made almost from page one, is that this is about misogyny, as
opposed to books by Jim Thompson, which are misogynistic."
The introduction to the Hughes' novel makes this point over
and over, assuming (as does the publisher quoted above) that
[1] it is incontrovertably true that Hughes' theme is that
males have contempt for women [2] Hughes subverts the
conventions of the crime novel to do so, even though it seems
that the vigor of the book lies in part in its atmospheric
use of the underside of urban life [3] the value of the book
is that it does contain this underlying theme. I did not find
the essay convincing, patly b/c it was so obvious that the
writer did not think it was necessary to document her
assumption at length. But I do feel that if this is so, the
book is not "noir." Noir does not make absolute distinctions
between good and evil, and is too deep an analysis of *human*
motives to be didactic. Nor do good critics of this genre beg
such questions as whether or not Jim Thompson is
mysogynistic. Many of his characters are in the grip
obsessions which make them destructive of other humans, some
of whom are female.
I am not optimistic about this series.
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