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RARA-AVIS: Brown(e), Cain, Goodis, etc.
I must vehemently disagree with whoever said that Paul Cain and David
Goodis were hacks. In the case of Cain, this strikes me as a foolish
assertion, since his production consists of only one novel and a couple
dozen short stories. In my opinion, he worked at a very high level and
stands comparison with the best crime writers of all time. In the case
of Goodis, he could be accused of being sloppy at times, but not of
playing to the gallery (which is what a hack does).
As to Fredric Brown being "better than" Howard Browne, I am puzzled.
While both men clearly are in the all-time cream of the crop of
mystery writers, they don't have much in common. Fredric had an amazing
inventiveness both in the short story and novel genres, and produced
several acknowledged classics ("The Fabulous Clipjoint", "The Screaming
Mimi", "The Lenient Beast", etc.). In contrast, Browne published
relatively fewer novels - but they are all classics, and "The Taste of
Ashes" is arguably as good as the best of Chandler. Browne's Paul Pine
is a wonderful creation, and the author's plotting ability, his depth of
characterization, and his ability to write dialogue are of a very high
order. He is a pro through and through.
I must also disagree with whoever was dismissing Jim Thompson; some of his
books are rather weak and seem to have been written in a rush (possibly
out of necessity), but his best ones are hair-rasing in a wholly personal
way. While he can be seen as a James Cain imitator, he did many original
things and had his own special king of magic.
Having gotten these gripes off my chest, I would like to ask:
Which crime authors can be labelled unredeemable hacks?
My suggestions for this category:
*Mickey Spillane
[I almost mentioned Frank Gruber, but his stuff can be quite funny]
Best regards,
Mario Taboada
Norfolk, Virginia
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