Re: RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled: Classic vs. Contemporary

michael david sharp (msharp@umich.edu)
Sun, 30 Nov 1997 14:17:10 -0500 (EST) I hardly read contemporary hardboiled writers at all. Most of them appear
to be trying too hard to imitate the cold, hard diction of the best work
from 1930-50 -- trying too hard to be hard. For my money, Walter Mosley is
the most readable and innovative of contemp. hardboiled writers. I just
started reading Block's Scudder series, and I like what I'm reading, but I
feel like I'm reading a slightly-above-average Gold Medal paperback
original mystery. I don't mean to impugn Block's talent at all; I'm only
part way through the first novel, so things could change drastically as my
reading progresses. The best hardboiled novels I've read are, in no
particular order: Thompson's *Pop. 1280*, F. Brown's *The Lenient Beast*,
Chandler's *The Long Goodbye*, and P. Highsmith's *The Talented Mr.
Ripley*. Oh, and of course *The Maltese Falcon*, which I like Way better
than I did *Red Harvest* (which is not bad by any means).

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Michael D. Sharp Email: msharp@umich.edu
Department of English Lang. and Lit. Phone: (313) 761-8776
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Fax: (313) 763-3128

On Sun, 30 Nov 1997, Rick Robinson wrote:

> 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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