I wouldn't call THE MALTESE FALCON or THE BIG SLEEP noir at
all. TOBACCO ROAD I would, but coming from an unusual angle.
It is full of despair and hopelessness and awful actions
glossed over, and things only get worse. Also each character
is damned. (I often look at Thomas Hardy as noir for the same
reasons. There's even a few tough colloquialisms in
there.)
Interesting observation about female authors of noir, though.
Maybe it's a male thing? I would have Liza Cody's BUCKET NUT
books up there though.
Charlie.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Vorzimmer"
<jvorzimmer@...> wrote:
>
> Allan,
>
> I was looking over your Top 200 Noirs and I noted a
couple of
things. First,
> I don't see any women on the list and such a list
should at least
include
> Highsmith and Caspary or to rephrase--they really
should have been
among the
> authors you read. Second, I see Boris Vian's I Spit
on Your Graves,
which
> really isn't worthy of a Top 200 list. Third, it's a
strange
definition of
> noir that allows you to include Tobacco Road, but
not The Maltese
Falcon or
> The Big Sleep. Fourth, there are much better
Willefords than the
two you
> list.
>
> That said, I must add you are still the biggest
influence on what I
read.
>
> Cheers,
> Jeff
>
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