Jim wrote:
"Do I think of the Lew Griffin novels as crime novels? Well,
yes...and no. The whole idea of those books was to create a
new kind of novel, something that combined the delights of
crime fiction, what I love about it, with the delights of
"literary" fiction. I'd estimate that about half my readers
see them as simply novels, the other half as mysteries or
crime novels. Then there are those who find them unsettling
and too in-between, neither fish nor fowl...."
Personally, I have often found the Lew Griffin novels
unsettling and in-between (though not too in-between), but in
a good way. The first book or two are as close as they come
to coloring within the lines of genre, but even there, the
crayons tend to slip outside quite a bit. In the last two,
they are not only outside lies, but off the page, coloring on
the table and floor. That is not to say the books are
unfocused, not at all, just that they have spun far from the
conventions of crime fiction. I've already mentioned that
Ghost of a Flea has made me think of Jack O'Connell for its
refusal to be bound. However, it also reminds me of the
relaxed southern style of Barry Gifford and others, where
there is always time to stop for someone to tell a story,
great stories, related to the plot or not. And, of course, it
jibes (or maybe jives might be more approriate to the book's
rhythm) very well with various theories of post-modern
storytelling (though, thankfully not tied to a specific
dogma).
I finished Ghost of a Flea, and it was even better than I was
already thinking it was (topping even my high estimation of
Cricket). The frame really drew everything together quite
nicely and makes me want to go back and read the series all
over again. I don't want to give anything away to anyone who
has not yet read it, but I'm curious, at what point in
writing the series did you start thinking in terms of that
frame?
Mark
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