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RARA-AVIS: Hard-boiled checklist
Terry says:
<<Would you place in a listing of hardboiled novels such works as the
ones below?
Three of S.S. Van Dine's Philo Vance novels.
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Junkie by William Burroughs
The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac
Case Of The Velvet Claw by Erle Stanley Gardner (first Perry Mason)
and the first four James Bond's from Ian Fleming!>>
Philo Vance? Not at all hardboiled.
Caldwell - a great writer, and Tobacco Road could well qualify as
hardboiled (it's a gritty, realistic tale). Incidentally, why are
his excellent short stories out of print?
Sanctuary - Definitely hardboiled.
Gardner's Velvet Claw - Gardner was quite hardboiled until this book,
and the boundary could well be stretched.
Kerouac and Burroughs - Mmmm.
James Bond - No. These are action thrillers but not at all realistic
(in fact, they are parodies). Compare with Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm
novels.
The problem with extending the "hardboiled" denomination to any
tough, realistic fiction (regardless of whether it has to do with crime
or not) is that it becomes too large a category. Once you enlarge it
thus, you have to include Dos Passos, Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor,
early Mailer, Henry Miller, Trumbo, Mario Puzo, Tim O'Brien, and so
on.
I guess we are back to the old discussion on definitions. I knew it would
be coming back....
Regards,
Mario Taboada
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