--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, JIM DOHERTY
<jimdohertyjr@y...> wrote:
> Could I have been wrong, I wondered, about I THE
JURY?
> I reread and found my initial judgment
validated.
> Great opening chapter. Great closing chapter.
But
> everything in-between is, as I thought,
dreck.
I did find I, THE JURY hard to get through. But the previous
book I'd read was THE DROWNING POOL. I chalked it up to
culture shock, going from a rather stylish and coherent
California novel to this choppy tome about a pissed-off tough
guy shooting anything that moves. It came off to me like RED
HARVEST, only without the obvious Western motif to make it
work. So how did I stomach getting from the strong opening to
its classic ending while enduring the middle?
It was easy.
(Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
I read MY GUN IS QUICK last year, and the opening chapter
made me check the cover two or three times. It sounded like a
Larry Block intro. Much better novel, though, and at several
points, I expected Hammer to go check his chess board, like
Spillane was cribbing notes from Chandler and MacDonald.
Whatever he did, though, it worked, because VENGEANCE is a
great book. It's extremely pulpy, but I liked it because you
could almost see the story from Chambers' or Velda's point of
view. I could almost see someone rewriting the story from
their points of view, esp. Velda's. I have to wonder if Velda
almost demanded a stronger role as Spillane was
writing.
OK, while you're chewing on that, I'm home from work reading
John D MacDonald's PURPLE PLACE FOR DYING. We can all chill
out in Nevada when I finish that one.
Jim Winter
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