RARA-AVIS: Avallone, paperback trade, this week's reading

Levin, Doug (DLEVIN@DIRECTIMPACT.COM)
Tue, 12 Aug 1997 10:42:11 -0400 A word on Avallone and the paperback trade: In his 1986 introduction to
the Black Lizard (original Creative Arts--Berkeley, CA editions) reprint
of Fires That Destroy, Harry Whittington says that Avallone wrote the
first Man From Uncle novel, and "It had sold at least a million copies
and Mike was bleeding in rage"--presumably because he got the same deal
that Whittington took for the second in the series--$1,500 outright for
all rights, no royalties. Whittington's novel also sold a lot and
feeling too burned finally, he took a hiatus from his pulp writing. Any
Whittington readers with recommendations? Fires That Destroy didn't
seem too great to me, but I didn't finish it. Recently, I found a used
copy (in Virginia) of a Whittington book called Web of Murder, which is
copyright 1958 by Fawcett, though my version comes from Sharon
Publications of Tel Aviv, Israel. Presumably, Whittington got nothing
for that. Because of copyright hanky-panky, it seems a lot of the pulps
fly well below the Library of Congress, which I have found has no record
of early Willeford (that's all I've checked). Of Black Lizard, the
Washington Post Sunday book section (which I think is on-line) has a
little blurb about Barry Gifford, who worked at Black Lizard in its
heyday. The article credits Gifford with the noir revival of figures
like Goodis and particularly Thompson.

On this week's reading: First, for anyone looking for a copy of
_Hard-Boiled_, I got a remaindered hardback for 10 bucks yesterday. The
store said they have one more (at Alexandria location) and they would
probably mail it: Olsson's toll free is (800) 989-8084, e-mail
ols1239@aol.com I got my copy at the Alexandria, VA location which is
(703) 684-0077.

I thought the Leigh Brackett story was pretty good, if a little
predictable. The opening descriptions were particularly nice (the fire
on the neck--is it blood? No diamonds, etc.) James Reasoner notes that
she has enough material for a novel. The exposition of substories
(e.g., the Harding brother murdered at steel mill) becomes a less
appealing thumbnail substitution for the dramatic rendering that might
have taken place in a novel (one of the issues discussed in the
first-person v. third-person debate; along the same lines, we might
discuss the virtues of novel vs. short story; I much prefer the novel).
One last point on this story: the good cop is particularly marked as
ethnically italian (Carmen Prioletti) fighting the presumably Irish
Hickey. What's that about? Why does Brackett make this choice?

I think the Helen Nielsen story was the much stronger of the two. I
liked its prose and simplicity--and it's quite a bit more bleak. One
mark of its strength is how affecting it is, even as it is predictable
(as James Reasoner notes). I think the reader's heart leaps with false
hope even as he or she knows the hope is false (sort of like you think
Desdemona is going to revive in Othello--early hard-boiled--even though
you know she doesn't). Finally, James notes that he sympathizes with
the farmer, but I even found myself sucked in by Morrell--especially
when he talks about how he has used "college sharpies" to make HIS
money--a class-incisive story swallowed up by this sharpie.

Doug Levin
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.