RARA-AVIS: Hunter and Thompson
James & Livia Reasoner (liviajames@itexas.net)
Tue, 19 Aug 1997 21:30:04 -0500
Normally I like Evan Hunter's work a great deal, but I didn't
care for this
story. I know it was supposed to be about the pointlessness of
violence,
but what came across to me was just a story without a point. I
was waiting
for some sort of twist that never showed up. I wish the editors
had
reprinted one of Hunter's Matt Cordell stories from MANHUNT.
Those are
some of my favorites from that era. Perhaps there were
contractual
problems about reprinting one of them. (One of the juvenile
science
fiction novels by Hunter mentioned in the introduction to this
story was in
the school library when I was in fifth grade. It was called
_Danger:
Dinosaurs!_ and I read it over and over again and still
remember it
vividly. I completely forgot until a few years ago that the
author was
"Richard Marsten", though, before I finally realized it was
actually by
Evan Hunter. A great book--at least I thought so when I was in
the fifth
grade.)
I'm not as big a fan of Jim Thompson's work. I think he was
unjustly
forgotten for a long time, then unjustly overpraised when he
was
rediscovered. And I saw the twist ending of this story coming
from the
first. However ... I don't care. That's an absolutely
wonderful final
line, and it's enough to make the story work for me.
Best,
James
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