--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "E. Borgers"
<webeurop@...> wrote:
>
> I think Lehane is an overvalued writer, having a lot
of readers
with limited knowledge of genre lit. Even of lit.
> Why is it so ? I wonder...
I like Lehane. After reading through this thread I started
getting the feeling that I should be ashamed of liking him,
but finally realized that was silly of me. Lehane tells a
good character-driven story with tight plots, preposterous or
not; he wouldn't be the first crime fiction writer to stretch
the limits of a reader's suspension of disbelief or "cheat"
with Shutter Island as Dave said. I've reread Shutter Island
twice and with each reading I found that the cheating wasn't
actually cheating...there were clues all along to what was
going on, I just didn't pick them up in the first reading.
Sometimes subtlety is refreshing. I see Cornell Woolrich as
cheating more than Lehane.
"Too long, too many unnnecessary details on
"secondary-secondary" characters, and a very average
story."
Sometimes I'm in the mood for something long, a novel, and
details that others may find unnecessary I find build the
story. When I want something short and sweet I'll pick up a
Thompson.
Why do we peons like him? Maybe because he offers something
that is a little rare: a damn good story with well developed
characters. Not to mention his spot-on dialog to which few
can compare, then or now. I don't feel like I've wasted time
and brain cells reading him like I have with a few other
contemporary crime writers. There's just a certain substance
to his books, even the "second tier" ones.
I'm not a writer or a scholar or a literary critic, but I
also don't have a limited knowledge of genre lit or lit in
general; I'm a reader of everything from classics to
philosophy to hardboiled (and almost everything in between
with the exception of romance). I feel that what Lehane does,
he does very well. He's managed to cross the genre line and
appeal to an audience that isn't exclusively crime readers
while still remaining a crime writer.
And now, the final note of my little hissy fit ;) To me, his
Patrick and Angela series is one of the best contemporary PI
series.
Amy peace
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