Re what Karin wrote: I think I may have been the panelist at
Bouchercon who said this (if not; someone made the same point
I did!)...But I was talking about novels where anti-heroes
are the protagonists (the panel was called "Following
Ripley") so I don't think this really applies to Mankell's
detective fiction. In other words, in a Mankell novel, the
detective is a good guy, on the right side of the law, so
there is no real need for personal redemption...the
protagnist is likable because he's moral and the redemption
comes when the murder is solved. In the anti-hero novel, an
author needs to find other ways of engaging the reader and
humor is one of them. But I don't think noir novels need to
have humor. I don't think Goodis's novels are particularly
funny, but Willeford's are very funny, and Thompson's are
wickedly funny. But all of these writers grip me. Ken Bruen
uses his voice to engage the reader, as does Charlie Williams
and Al Guthrie. I think you can also engage the reader with
the quality of the writing or with high tech suspense (Barry
Eisler) or eeriness (Highsmith)...In this way, noir novels
are unlike detective novels where the reader is automatically
engaged with the reader. In a noir novel, the author has to
work harder to get the reader on board....But humor is always
subjective. I'm sure there are people out there who don't
think Thompson, or Leonard, or Higgins, or even Willeford are
funny at all, but may think Mankell is funny... J http://www.jasonstarr.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Oct 2004 EDT