Nathan,
Re your question below:
"Okay, Lawrence Block has had a long career and written a lot
of books. I've only read a few, so I want to know what do you
consider his best book, and why?"
I'll list three, two fiction and one non-fiction.
His best novel is EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE, the fifth in his
Scudder series, and the most ambitious in the series to that
point. Unlike similar novels such as Wade Miller's GUILTY
BYSTANDER or Mickey Spillane's THE GIRL HUNTERS (both fine
books, BTW, don't get me wrong), Block does not depict his
detective as being motivated to climb out of a drunken stupor
to solve a case, but as solving a case while still a
practicing alcoholic.
In earlier books, you could quibble. Scudder's not an
alcoholic. Not really. Sure he likes to drink, but he's in
control; he's not controlled by his need for booze. THAT'S
the difference.
By EIGHT MILLION, though, neither the reader, nor Matt, can
continue to kid themselves. Matt's an alcoholic and he's got
to do something about it or he'll die.
Block, then masterfully depicts Scudder struggling with two
separate, life-threatening problems simultaneously. Hi search
for a deranged killer, and his efforts to come to terms with,
to simply admit, his alcoholism and do something about
it.
Before reading EIGHT MILLION, however, you should make a
point of reading the four Scudder novels preceding it, IN THE
MIDST OF DEATH, THE SINS OF THE FATHERS, TIME TO MURDER AND
CREATE, and A STAB IN THE DARK, in order to see Scudder's
deterioration over time.
Since the subject line asks for "Block's Best Novel," I'm
going a bit off-topic by mentioning ENOUGH ROPE, his
door-stopping collection of some of his best short fiction,
including all the Scudder short stories written to that
point, as well as entries about some of his other series
characters like Keller and Bernie Rhodenbarr, plus dozens of
stand-alones. Block is a master of short fiction, and this
book is a primer for how it should be done.
Finally, since Block really is someone who can tell an
aspiring writer how it should be done, his collection of his
WRITERS DIGEST columns on writing fiction, TELLING LIES FOR
FUN AND PROFIT, is, not surprisingly,
perhaps the best "how-to" book about writing I've ever
read.
JIM DOHERTY
__________________________________________________ Do You
Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 12 Nov 2007 EST