I've never been disappointed when re-reading Ross Thomas.
Practically every page of THE PROCANE CHRONICLE has a passage
or two that made me stop reading in simple admiration of the
writing. The descriptions, the names, the action scenes, the
dialogue. Man, Ross Thomas could write, no matter which name
he was using.
In THE PROCANE CHRONICLE, Philip St. Ives, the professional
go-between, is hired to make the payment for and recover the
journals of a professional thief, Abner Procane. After a
false start, during the course of which St. Ives discovers
the dead body of Bright Bobby Boykin, the exchange is made.
But that's just the beginning. I loved every bit of it.
This is the "Oliver Bleeck" book that was made into a movie
called ST. IVES. The first mistake was casting Charles
Bronson as St. Ives. Bronson was wrong in every way for the
part. Maybe the moviemakers figured that out or maybe Philip
was considered a sissy name, because Bronson became Raymond
St. Ives. Could be Philip's brother, I guess. The
protagonist's name and the title aren't the only things that
were changed, either. The setting was moved from New York and
Washington to L.A., and of course the plot was pretty much
done away with and another one was substituted. I've never
been able to figure out why that happens. The book's plot is
a pretty darned good one. Why buy the book and then dump the
perfectly serviceable plot? Oh, well. One thing I can't argue
with is the casting of Jacqueline Bisset. John Houseman was
pretty good, too.
Bill Crider
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 08 Feb 2005 EST