Dick wrote:
> Hardboiled? Soft-boiled? Parboiled? I suppose it's
in the mind of the
> reader. But I think some (not all) of Francis'
novels are filled
> with too
> much sadistic violence and detailed torture, too
many depressed
> heroes with
> wives or relatives dying of cancer or living in iron
lungs, too many
> animal
> mutilations, too many truly sociopathic villains to
be put in the
> Christie-Queen-Stout category. And if the Sid Halley
novels aren't
> hardboiled, with the hapless jockey-turned-private
detective getting
> more of
> his destroyed hand lopped off in each, then I'd be
hard-pressed to
> come up
> with a book that is.
I agree with Dick. This idea that Francis' books are full of
"genteel people who find themselves in the midst of a
criminal conspiracy by no fault of their own" is to have
severely misread the books -- or to perhaps have settled for
reading the back cover summaries.
Most of Francis' heroes, if not working class, definitely
work for a living: they're jockeys, private detectives,
photographers, reporters, security agents, adventure writers,
etc. and like most characters in hard-boiled lit, they're
professionals, taking a certain pride in what they do because
they're good at it, a trait that stretches back at least to
Race Williams and the Op. Dick's tone is crisp and terse, and
he's one of the few writers in the genre to confront the
aftereffects of violence. No phony baloney
miracle-cure-by-bourbon here; when Francis' characters are
hurt, they HURT. And in the Sid Halley books in particular,
the effects are certainly permanent, carrying on from one
book to the next.
I'm not quite sure why his characters are considered genteel.
Because they're are generally British, and can move from room
to room without dragging their knuckles? Because some of them
are members of the upper classes? Seems to me Marlowe tangled
with several upper crust types as well. Does that makes
Marlowe's adventures "genteel"?
And "innocents" finding themselves "in the midst of a
criminal conspiracy" is a trademark not just of most amateur
sleuth mysteries, but also a typical noir scenario. In fact,
the basic plots of many amateur sleuth novels, particularly
standalones, and noir novels and films are remarkably similar
-- it's the themes and stylistic tone that differ.
Kevin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Feb 2008 EST