RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled: Classic vs. Contemporary

Rick Robinson (rkr@pacbell.net)
Sun, 30 Nov 1997 09:15:20 -0800 Hi, y'all,

In the November 25-26 DorothyL digest, Marshall Moseley posed the
question "What's the best hardboiled novel you've ever read?" He listed
a few titles that he said 'came to mind' - all written in the 1990s.

Naturally I couldn't resist and sent off a reply making (so I thought) a
case for Hammett, Chandler and Ross MacDonald and named two or three of
each of these authors' novels that I think are among their better
efforts.

There has been no response to my posting while the rest of the list has
named books written in the last couple of decades. I don't have anything
against the authors and books they mention, but to me the very heart and
soul of hardboiled fiction is the work of the authors I listed above.

Q: Have things gotten to the point that mysetry readers, present company
excepted, think the best hardboiled novels are being written by
contemporary authors? I wonder if the people who are mentioning authors
like Parker and Lee Child have read the classic hardboiled novels but
prefer the contemporary authors or if they haven't read them and thus
don't even think of Hammett, Chandler, MacDonald et al when they hear
the term "hardboiled"?

Q: If so it's a sad state of affairs, and I wonder how it has come
about.

"Yea, though I walk through streets mean and gritty, my rod and my gat
shall comfort me"
- from The Hardboiled P.I.'s 23rd Psalm
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