since some women have a preconception of the genre as
male-centered and have avoided crime/noir/hardboiled fiction
altogether, i think discovering women authors could be an
entry into the genre for some. i agree with miker's
implication that the main criteria for appreciation should of
course be the achievement and not the gender of the writer.
at the same time i think that the efforts of feminist presses
to rescue female authors of bygone eras from obscurity is
important, and even in the cases where novels aren't great,
we may get unique insights about female
perspectives/characters from them. case in point is fallen
angel by mary holland, a writer that Cain really liked.
i mentioned only the earlier writers because i haven't
read any modern crime fiction writers yet--i'm still reading
the 30s-60s stuff--and can't recommend any newer stuff by
women or men, though i hope to get to newer writers in the
next few years
--- Michael Robison <
miker_zspider@yahoo.com> wrote:
> david wrote:
>
> Maybe more women would appreciate the genre
if
> exposed
> to notable women noir writers of the classic
era:
> Mary
> (a.k.a Marty) Holland (personal fave),
Virginia
> Kellog, Lenore Coffee, Vera Caspary, Leigh
Brackett,
> Dorothy Hughes, etc.
>
> ************
> I didn't think Caspary's Laura was noir. Ditto
for
> Brackett's No Good from a Corpse. Caspary's
writing
> was not too bad, but I thought Brackett's novel
was
> poor, a third-rate Chandler imitation. On the
other
> hand, Dorothy Hughes's Ride the Pink Horse
was
> spectacular. A powerful psychological story of
the
> dark side. Also I see no particular
advantage
> sticking with the older classics. Vicki
Hendricks's
> Iguana Love is outstanding, as is Natsuo
Kirino's
> Out.
>
> But I don't think that women reading noirs by
women
> authors would do much to increase their
appreciation
> of the genre.
>
> miker
>
>
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