"James R. Winter" <
winter_writes@earthlink.net> wrote:
<< It's no secret Ross MacDonald was copping Chandler
in his first five novels. It's also no secret that Ross was
sometimes better at it than Chandler.
>>
When you look at the trendline for the literary
hardboiled PI novel, everyone agrees that the starting point
in Hammett, then Chandler. Some may not agree that Ross
MacDonald is next, but I think James is right here --
MacDonald makes the leap to the next step, the next
level.
I think the next blip on the trendline is James
Sallis. He makes the next leap, yet -- as with MacDonald --
the tradition is still visible, or at least can still be
detected (if you will) through the narrative or revelation of
character.
I'm using CYPRESS GROVE as my basis for this
off-the-cuff declaration. True, CG isn't technically a PI
novel. But the narrator is an ex-vet, ex-cop, ex-con (that
covers most of the territory that most PIs use as a
background) and is called in as a "consultant" to help
investigate a murder. The earliest literary PIs -- Poe's and
Doyle's creations -- were considered consulting detectives, I
think, so I believe CG stands firmly in the tradition of PI
fiction.
CG, like MacDonald's mature work, is a novel of
revelations -- about self (the narrator), about history
(again, the narrator, and others in the story), about
relationships (a number of characters), about family (just
about everyone in the story).
This is just an excellent novel. Although it veers a
bit from the traditional PI story, it's solidly rooted in the
PI tradition. Many thanks to whoever nominated here for one
of the best since 2000 -- that posting prompted me to go out
and finally read this book.
- Duane Spurlock
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 29 Nov 2004 EST