<<while I'm touching on Marlowe, I'll say that I didn't
care much for
Parker's completion of Poodle Springs, never felt that he
came within
miles of capturing the character. thought a lot of other
authors did a
better job in the short story compilation published by
Knopf.>>
While Parker did a decent job of making a novel out of
Chandler's
beginning, what comes through is his own voice (not one that
I enjoy
much), and that ruins it. Chandler, by dint of his marvellous
prose,
created constant tension and forward motion, not to mention
magic. By
comparison, Parker takes you for a stroll around the block.
Parker also
wrote a sequel to The Big Sleep (called "Perchance to dream")
which was
okay but again failed to bring Chandler back. That said,
these two books
were better than the shapeless and insufferable Spensers he
was turning
out at the time.
Speaking of completions, Lawrence Block did a wonderful job
in
completing Woolrich's last novel (whose title my memory
denies me right
now). One is not aware that there is any author other than
Woolrich. It
takes a highly skilled and versatile writer to do that (and a
selfless
one), though in this case a big chunk of the novel was
written, which
surely made it easier.
Regards,
Mario Taboada
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