I've been reading as many mysteries as ever, but not a lot of
hardboiled stuff recently. I recently reread Hammett's RED
HARVEST and am now firmly convinced this is one of the great
American novels, as pure as a folk tale. I read Hard Case's
GRAVE DESCEND, by John Lange, and thought it was reasonably
good, better than some of the stuff they've dug up. (I
thought that Pete Hammill book -- THE GUNS OF HEAVEN? -- was
just awful.)
I'm currently going through the Pronzini/Adrian edited
HARD-BOILED anthology from Oxford UP. I think a mixed bag so
far, but I did like Ellroy's "Gravy Train", the touching love
story of a man and a pampered pit bull; Raoul Whitfield's
"Mistral", which makes me want to seek out GREEN ICE; Chester
Himes's "Marijuana and a Pistol" which shouldn't work but
somehow implausibly does, mainly because Himes keeps the
whole thing short and stark; and Robert Sampson's "To
Florida", which is almost unbearably grim but does succeed in
what it sets out to do. But I'm not done yet.
doug
--- Karin Montin <
kmontin@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> I got Bust, by Jason Starr and Ken Bruen,
for
> Christmas and read it recently. It's good noir
fun.
> And the cover art matches the contents! Angela
is
> actually blonde as depicted. Not a real blonde,
but
> still. Their coauthorship is so well achieved
that
> it's impossible to tell who wrote what. I
really
> enjoyed it, right up to the ending, which I
found
> just a little glib. There's a sequel coming out
soon
> and I'll be interested to see what becomes of
Angela
> and Max in that. Hard Case Crime is touting
Slide
> with "THIS MAY BE THE MOST SHOCKING BOOK YOU
EVER
> READ!"
>
> I'm in the middle of Rough Neck, Jim
Thompson's
> second volume of autobiography (haven't seen
the
> first, Bad Boy). He has more adventures
and
> misadventures and meets more colourful characters
in
> the first fifteen pages than most people would in
a
> lifetime. He was a very young man when
the
> Depression began and he had a hard time earning
a
> living. Amazingly, he kept on writing fiction
even
> as he worked a variety of low-paying jobs with
long
> hours.
>
> Karin
>
Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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