RARA-AVIS: Blue Lonesome/Ellroy/Scudder/Spillane

Victoria Esposito-Shea (vmes@sbt.infi.net)
Fri, 26 Jun 1998 12:08:25 -0500 > Just finished Bill Pronzini's A Wasteland of Strangers (1997). Amazing,
> non-P.I. book. Not sure if it's hardboiled or not, or even if it's truly
a
> crime novel, although its view of smalltown prejudice is certainly harsh,
> and crime certainly figures prominently...anyway, anyone on this list
will
> probably like it. It's about a stranger who wanders into the wrong small
> town, a sort of noirish mix of Shane and Peyton Place. The whole time I
was
> reading it, I kept envisioning it as a sort of hand-held camera, black
and
> white, claustrophobic pseudo-documentary film, unsettling, yet unable to
> ignore. Is it me, or was this a great book?
>
> The edition I have mentions another Pronzini non-series book called Blue
> Lonesome, put out by the same publisher (and possibly similiar in tone).
> Anyone read that one? Pronzini has written tons of non-Nameless books,
but
> I've never heard of Blue Lonesome. Anyone?

Yeah, I read Blue Lonesome a month or so ago and really liked it. I
haven't read A Wasteland of Strangers yet, though I picked it up today
based on Kev's recommendation, so can't compare. Blue Lonesome does,
however, take place in a small rural town in Nevada, and it's largely
driven by the residents' ideas and prejudices (not racial, more personal,
if that makes any sense) about each other and about the main character,
who's a CPA from San Fransisco. The tone (and, if you will, the
philosophical underpinnings) reminds me somewhat of the later Nameless
books, and--while bits of the plot are predictable and there are points
where the main character does something so obviously stupid that I wound up
screaming advice at him, just like you do when you watch old horror
films--it was, overall, very, very compelling.

I also finally got around to reading some of Ellroy: Big Nowhere, Black
Dahlia, My Dark Places (in that order). I know this has been discussed to
death here, so I'll just say that I'm still trying to figure out how I feel
about Ellroy but I keep on reading him. Whatever that says. I found him
*highly* annoying in MDP, between his attitude about his mother and his
attitude about using her death as publicity, but I don't think I could have
not finished the book.

Also picked up one of Block's Scudder books for the first time, and I was
surprised to find how closely it resembled his Bernie Rhodenbarr books,
which I love. I think I could have identified the author based on the
dialogue between Scudder and Elaine, which closely resembles the dialogue
between Bernie and. . .just about everyone. Obviously, the Scudder series
is somewhat more serious, but I found myself really liking it so far.

And, finally, I picked up Spillane's first few novels today. I have
complained at length about his later novels, and I stand by all my
kvetching, but I figured I might as well read some of the early stuff for
the hell of it. No doubt I'll get thoroughly offended by them, but I will
do my best to keep my offense in historical context. :)

Shutting up now, after an unprecedentedly long post. . . .
Vicky Esposito-Shea
vmes@sbt.infi.net
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