--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Don Lee <donthepoet@...> wrote:
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> So is Ross Macdonald noir? I know Lew Arch is a recurring character, therefore survives each tale automatically, but the overall stories seem pretty much wrapped up in doomed repressed family histories etc., which all seems kinda noir-ish to me.
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> Don
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-------I first read Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer novels in the 1960's and 1970's and thought they were all excellent and at or near the same level as Chandler and Hammett.
Recently I've reread five of the novels and am enjoying them even more on a second or third reading. I intend to reread the others also. You are definitely right in thinking the Lew Archer novels are noirish. Though the lead character is a private eye, the novels are really about the corrupting influence of money, the power of sex, and the influence of the dark past. Add the haunted characters acting out their doomed lives, the shadowy atmosphere, and you have a series of novels that are full of noir elements.
---Walker Martin.
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