I found the ending incredibly cold also. I think it's
possible to write dark and gritty noir without crossing over
to such sadistic cruelty.
pax/shalom/salaam, Darrell http://wildfaith.blogspot.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: William Denton
To: RARA-AVIS
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 12:37 PM
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Grifter's Game
I read Lawrence Block's GRIFTER'S GAME (1961, as
MONA), in the recent Hard
Case reprint. I was going along thinking it was
fairly minor Block, but
decent stuff given he did it when he was 23 (he
turns 67 this year). It
was cruising along smoothly if rather averagely,
the story of a con man
who falls for the beautiful wife of a rich man
and then decides to kill
the husband. An expected twist happened with 50
pages left to go, and it
picked up a bit.
The climax of the novel really surprised me,
though. It's one of the most
sadistic things I've read in a long time. I won't
give away the details,
but man, that is cold.
Bill
--
William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/
: Caveat lector.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> What would our lives be like
without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the
arts today at Network for Good!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 06 Mar 2005 EST