--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "joyrose517"
<eprn17@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for highlighting this book, Brian. I only
just recently
> started reading hardboiled fiction, and am
completely enthralled by
> Ross MacDonald and Lew Archer. I'm reading the
novels in
> chronological order, and am looking forward to
reading these stories.
> Before I read "The Moving Target" I was planning on
starting at the
> beginning with Hammett and Chandler, but now I'm in
no hurry to read
> them. I get such pleasure from reading MacDonald's
prose that I could
> stay in his world forever.
>
You can. He's infinitely rereadable. Lawrence Block described
the experience, which I make mine in toto: once you've
finished a RMcD book, it goes completely out of your head. So
you can reread it any time you want and it will feel new...
except that after a certain point, they are all the same...
the same but not the same, so you can keep on reading. This
writer had some special magic, a laconic, sad kind of magic,
but we suckers keep reading. He was very good.
Have you read The Chill or The Zebra-Striped Hearse yet?
Those are great favorites of mine, and the latter has one of
the best titles I've ever seen in a mystery.
Best,
mrt
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