Jack, I see no reason whatever to compare Ross Macdonald with
Elmore Leonard. As to _geniuses_, I don't think there have
been any in the hardboiled and/or noir genres. Unless you
count guys like Franz Kafka as noir writers, which is a
stretch. Best, most original hardboiled/noir American writers
in my book: Hammett, Chandler, Willeford, Himes, Thompson,
Cormac McCarthy. I would place Leonard and Ross Macdonald a
bit lower, but still high. But Leonard and Macdonald have
never been in competition, and I doubt that they haven been
seen as competitors by readers; they don't have much in
common. It sounds like Gopnik is not very conversant with the
genres he is discussing. Joyce Carol Oates has written
similarly misguided things about Chandler, for example.
Best,
mrt
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