Re: RARA-AVIS: A GARDEN OF SAND, Earl Thompson

From: M Blumenthal ( blumenidiot@rcn.com)
Date: 01 Nov 2003


Michael Robison:
 CALDO LARGO is about a fisherman, I think. Been a long
> time since I read it. The crime that figures into Thompson's plots are
> small
> time scams, thefts, weighed with a lot of vice. I thought CALDO LARGO was
> pretty good. I loved GARDEN OF SAND. One of the best books I've ever
> read. The sequel to it, TATTOO, stunk. So obsessively sexual that
Thompson
> should have called it JACK'S DICK.

Miker, If you think TATOO is obsessively sexual, how about GARDEN OF SAND, which aside from being about the dark side of living in the depression has many episodes of Jack's attempts to to have sex with his mother from the age of about seven until he is at about age fourteen and climaxes when he succeeds? I think TATTOO needed a good editor as it lost its thrust by trying to chronicle too much of his life. From what I remember CALDO LARGO was influenced by Hemingway. THE DEVIL TO PAY tells of the character's life as an academic/writer. It may have as nearly as many sex scenes as the others but could not pretend to be hard boiled.

 I agree while crime is often present in GARDEN it is not that important. If you want to call it hard boiled, think something like THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY. Mark

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