I'm kind of late getting back to this post. But I recall
someone on Rara Avis having access to reprints of "Sin Pit."
Am I remembering correctly? It's not available through any
public or university inter-library loan source here in Ohio,
and the only copy I saw online was seventy-five bucks.
With a title like "Sin PIt," I'm intrigued.
Lawrence
---------Included Message----------
>Date: 4-May-2008 15:02:26 -0400
>From: "Jeff Vorzimmer" <
jvorzimmer@austin.rr.com>
>Reply-To: <
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>
>To: <
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: RARA-AVIS: Writers who have "disappeared"
from the public eye
>
>> ***April 2008: Writers who have "disappeared"
from the public eye, either
>> because they stopped
>> publishing or because their work is
unavailable.
>
>Are we still doing this theme?
>
>I've been trying to get back to Lion Books that I'd
overlooked in the past,
>so I read The Peddler (in a HCC reprint), Sleep with
the Devil, Sin Pit and
>Brotherhood of Velvet over the last couple months.
The last two titles
>belong to writers who definitely fall into this
category, Paul Meskil and
>David Karp. In the case of Paul Meskil, it's likely
due to the fact that he
>only published the one novel. But I can't understand
the neglect of Karp. He
>has definitey disappeared.
>
>In Hardboiled America, O'Brien mentions Karp as
"curiously overlooked" and
>in George's Noir Fiction, he says that a strong
argument can be made for
>Karp as being the best writer in the Lion stable,
even over Jim Thompson. I
>wouldn't go quite that far. Thompson and Goodis were
at the top of the heap
>there and both of them went on to Fawcett, while Karp
was able to break into
>the hardcover market. Though I think that the former
two, having been
>refugees from that market to begin with, thought they
could make a better
>living with PBOs.
>
>I read Karp's Brotherhood of Velvet, which has
mentioned as his best. It was
>well-written with an interesting premise, the
familiar theme of the secret
>organization that has people in key government
positions and thoroughly
>controls lives of those who belong. But it starts to
slowly fizzle out about
>half way through. It's almost as if he didn't know
how to end it properly.
>What I see as the problems of the novel I suspect
stem from the fact that
>Karp obviously didn't see himself as a crime writer
with the need for
>suspenseful moments and actual crime. What actual
crime exists in the novel
>is hearsay with the exception of the actual beating
he takes supposedly at
>the hands of the Brotherhood.
>
>Hey, I might have answered my own question as to why
he's been overlooked.
>
>Jeff
>
>
>
>
---------End of Included Message----------
Lawrence Coates Associate Professor of Creative Writing
Bowling Green State University
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