I had some of the same criticisms, but I didn't dwell on them too much in
the review because it is a first novel, and first novels should get a little
leeway, I think, and because I didn't want to get too much into the plot. I
have questions about certain characters and who was real and who wasn't (the
son? the mother?), I think Flexer should have worked a little harder to drop
some hints because if certain events in the novel didn't happen, then there
needed to be more clues as to exactly what did happen.
On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 10:30 PM, Gonzalo Baeza <gbaeza@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Nathan Cain recently wrote a nice review of the novel (
> indiecrime.blogspot.com). While I enjoyed it and actually bought the book
> on the strength of that first chapter I read on your website (btw, what a
> bunch of great unpublished writers you've lined up), I must say I think the
> novel's a far cry from Jim Thompson. The violence and the characterizations
> are caricaturesque and the author can't seem to strike a balance between the
> outlandish humor and telling a story from the point of view of a sociopath
> (one recent novel that accomplishes this pretty effectively is Iain
> Levison's Since the Layoffs). In spite of the rough spots, I think it's an
> entertaining first novel . I'll be on the lookout for more Flexer and New
> Pulp Press titles.
>
> -Gonzalo
>
>
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com <rara-avis-l%40yahoogroups.com>, "Allan
> Guthrie" <allan@...> wrote:
> >
> > Can't speak for Dave, but I thought THE DISASSEMBLED MAN was the closest
> > thing to a Jim Thompson novel I've read that wasn't actually written by
> > Thompson. I posted an extract of the book on my website long before the
> book
> > was scheduled to be published. It was a blind submission. I'd never had
> any
> > contact with the author before. I posted the extract because I liked it.
> A
> > lot. And when I read the book, I gave a heads up on it to quite a few
> people
> > I thought would also enjoy it. In general, they did. It's not for
> everyone,
> > any more than Jim Thompson is. Taste is a peculiar thing.
> >
> > Al
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Kevin Burton Smith" <kvnsmith@...>
> > > Like, did you actually read THE DISASSEMBLED MAN or just give them a
> > > blurb? Or did they just use your name without telling you? I notice
> > > they've removed your blurb from the Amazon page.
> >
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 09 Jun 2009 EDT