<<It's a pretty good article, with enough meat in it to
spark a
half-dozen or so threads in this list, not the least of which
is the
assertion that today's private eyes "feel like nostalgic
diehards, worn
down by the strain of keeping the Chandler faith alive...as a
compelling
myth, the private eye is history.">>
Good article. While I agree that many private-eye novels and
even entire
series sound a bit tired (in some cases, were born tired),
there are
always exceptions.
As to how believable a quixotic P.I. is in our day, I would
argue that
Chandler's Marlowe wasn't exactly believable in the forties
and fifties
either. It's the quality of the writing and the characters
that draw the
reader - I take it for granted that there is an automatic
suspension of
disbelief when the author really delivers a good story.
It's also interesting to notice how certain gifted authors
have
circumvented the limitations of the P.I. as hero. Mosley,
making Rawlins
a regular guy who gets into messes; Burke, by having
Robicheaux be a
very peculiar sort of cop; Ellroy, by pushing the procedural
in
interesting (even crazy) directions; Sallis, by making the
crime and
investigation subsidiary to an existentialist drama; Gores,
by adopting
the techniques of the procedural while nominally adhering to
the P.I.
formula, and so on. These guys succeed because of unusual
ingenuity and
talent, but many others who still plow the traditional P.I.
territory
often produce pale, tired, cliche-ridden works that only
contribute to
sinking the formula further.
Regards,
Mario Taboada
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