RARA-AVIS: Re: Real Cool Killers

From: Richard Moore ( moorich@aol.com)
Date: 19 Jul 2007


--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Michael Robison
<miker_zspider@...> wrote:
>
> Mario wrote:
>
> At the risk of offending somebody, which is not my
> intention, this is like mentioning John Huston and
> Tarantino in the same breath.
>
> **************
> No offense taken, Mario. Of course, as Richard Moore
> has pointed out, I have been limiting my comparison to
> The Real Cool Killers and the first three Hammer
> novels, not the oeuvre of both writers. So far I
> haven't seen anything here to change my opinion.
>
> miker
>

Before the sweep of comparison get too wide and firm based on four novels you really should read more by both Spillane and Himes. In my opinion, you have yet to read the best work of either writer. I think the best Hammer novel is ONE LONELY NIGHT. Max Allan Collins called it the "quintessental Hammer" and William De Andrea said in many ways it was the key book in the series.

The same is true of the Himes novel although it has been a while since I read that one. So much depends on the context of when novels are read. My discovery of Himes came when at 14 I bought the Avon edition of ALL SHOT UP in 1960 in a very segregated little town in Georgia. It completely blew me away. Perhaps, I gave it additional points for originality because of the context of the reading. Regardless, it was one of my my most memorable reading expriences.

Now that I think of it, at the time I read the Himes novel, Spillane was one of my great favorites.

Richard Moore

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