Well, the same could be said for all first person fiction.
Unless you go to
the pretensions of having every single PI (or cop, I guess)
expain the
circumstances of how every single book came to be. Or, I
guess, have them
also be writers.Come to think of it, Les Roberts' Saxon, I
think, and
William J. Reynolds' Nebraska are writers, and seem to pull
it off, and
doesn't Max Collins' Nate Heller write his novels as
installments of his
memoirs? Still, it seems one pretension I could skip. Look at
some of those
old novels from the last century where the author banged
around for pages
and pages explaining how the book itself came to be. Who
cares? Let's get
on with the story.
As for hardboiled fiction specifically, I find first person
to generally be
the quickest way into the hero's head. Assuming, of course,
that hardboiled
fiction can have "heroes."
The Thompson book, evidently written by a dead man, is a case
in point.
Would it be better if it was written in third person? I don't
think so,
although it might be neat to have it written in second
person, addressed to
Lou in his grave.
Oh, and the American publisher of Martin Rowson's The
Wasteland was Harper
& Row. Oh, lucky me, that's the one I have, and there are
a few explanatory
notes at the back of the book, which may help some of us (not
me,
though...I think it's beyond me, for now...I just like to
look at the
pretty pictures).
Kevin Smith
Web Guy for The Thrilling Detective Web Site
For info, mailto:kvnsmith@total.net
"It's the detectives come to see about the parents
Who are ready to hear the worst about their daughter's
disappearance...
I don't how much more of this I can take...
She's filing her nails while they're dragging the
lake..."
- Watching the
Detectives (Elvis Costello)
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