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Re: RARA-AVIS: Are we up and running yet? 

> Well, you've sent out the first message to the first batch of
> subscribers after the announcement, Bill.  Congrats!  

Yes! I'm archiving this thread for posterity:-) I'm really excited 
about the prospects for discovering more HB authors and gathering new 
insights into familiar works. Thanks for starting it:)

> I haven't read anything by him, but I've been meaning to get some of
> his stuff since I saw a recommendation in rec.arts.mystery.  I
> didn't know Black Lizard had reprinted him, that will make it a lot
> easier to get.  

I seem to recall you mentioning that you had the anthology "Hard 
Boiled" by Bill Pronzini & Jack Adrian? If so, then you're in luck 
the Cain story in there - "Trouble Chaser" has not been reprinted 
anywhere before. It's relatively mild by Cain's standards, when 
you've read it you'll have some idea of what they are:) I thought it 
was hype when I read, time after time, that "Fast One" was the 
hardest novel of it's time and one of the hardest ever. Boy was I 
wrong. This guy would depress Jim Thompson:) His characters not only 
have no redeeming moral value, but the don't even have the excuse of 
being a nutcase a la Lou Ford! At his best, Cain creates some very 
surprising plots that turn what seem to be standard fare into real 
stunners. Stories like "Black" & "Parlor Trick" leave an indelible 
impression. His protagonists are generally hitmen, hookers, and other 
assorted lowlifes, which says a lot about the world they operate in. 
Egads! I could go on forever about this guy's stuff:)
 
> : What do you think, and who are your favorite authors?
 
> I've never met a Hammett or Chandler story I didn't like (although I
> recently received, courtesy of someone else on the list, some early
> Hammett short stories, never anthologized, that had some pretty
> silly plots - still very good reads, though).

Couldn't agree more, his characters and dialog are so real to me I 
have no trouble overlooking the occasional plotholes. Chandler 
threatens to evoke another treatise, but I'll restrian it for another 
thread:)

> There are tons of
> other writers I like and whose books I will always buy and read. 
> Two modern ones are James Ellroy and Charles Willeford.  Whether
> these are hardboiled writers or "crime" writers is fodder for
> argument.  Elmore Leonard, at least currently, I wouldn't call
> hardboiled.
> 
> Ellroy's L.A. Quartet knocked me out, from its span to its subject
> matter to its style.  I loved the way he got more and more stripped
> down from book to book, until by _White Jazz_ there were barely any
> complete sentences outside of conversation.

Ellroy is absolutely addictive! I just got a signed copy of "My Dark 
Places" and I'm trying to get a block of free time to devote to it. I 
never get any work done when I'm reading Ellroy:)

>  As to Willeford, I
> picked up _The Shark-Infested Custard_ the other day and finished it
> last night.  Strange book.  It's about four guys in their twenties
> in Miami, in the seventies.  There are four interwoven novellas,
> centering on the different guys, usually involving murder, weird sex
> and some other illegal activities.  It has an unsettling ending. 
> (If you've never read any Willeford, _The Burnt Orange Heresy_ is a
> great one about modern art.)

I haven't read any Willeford, but I'll move him to the top of my list 
of things to try. Thanks for the tip.
Bill "Not the comedian" Murray
bmurray@voicenet.com
Visit "Hard Boiled" at http://www.voicenet.com/~bmurray/index.html

Guinness is good for you! It give you strength!
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