Re: RARA-AVIS: Lawrence Block

Mark Sullivan (ANONYMEINC@webtv.net)
Tue, 1 Sep 1998 23:44:23 -0400 (EDT) --WebTV-Mail-296268886-845
Content-Type: Text/Plain; Charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit

The Triumph of Evil is one of three books Lawrence Block wrote under the
name Paul Kavanagh. The first of these, Such Men Are Dangerous, was
purportedly the autobiography of Paul Kavanagh (do later editions print
the "publisher's note" about receiving the manuscript?), an ex-Army
sniper (if I remember right) who was rejected by the CIA for being too
sociopathic. He goes off to live on his own, but is drafted for just
one job by the CIA (or is it?). This is one of my favorites of all the
Block books, the other two Kavanaghs weren't quite as good. Triumph and
Not Comin' Home to You were okay, but not much more.

The Matt Scudder books are probably the best place to start Block for
someone on this list. I think they jumped in quality starting with
Eight Million Ways to Die (many on the list would say it was the next
one, When the Sacred Ginmill Closes), but even the earlier ones are
readable genre pieces. The later ones are that and more.

After the Scudders, several of Block's early paperback originals are
also excellent hardboiled; I'm partial to Girl With the Long Green
Heart.

Mark

--WebTV-Mail-296268886-845
Content-Disposition: Inline
Content-Type: Message/RFC822
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit

Received: from mailsorter-102.bryant.webtv.net (mailsorter-102.iap.bryant.webtv.net
[207.79.35.92]) by asg-102.bryant.webtv.net (8.8.5/po.gso.24Feb98)
with ESMTP id KAA18218; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 10:16:26 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from loner.icomm.ca (icomm.ca [198.96.119.203]) by
mailsorter-102.bryant.webtv.net (8.8.5/ms.graham.14Aug97) with
ESMTP id KAA18086; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 10:16:25 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by loner.icomm.ca (8.8.6/8.8.6) id
NAA31602 for rara-avis-list; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 13:19:12 -0400
Received: from inet.quinnipiac.edu (gw.quinnipiac.edu [192.152.243.66]) by
loner.icomm.ca (8.8.6/8.8.6) with SMTP id NAA31598 for <rara-avis@icomm.ca>;
Mon, 31 Aug 1998 13:19:10 -0400
Received: by gw.quinnipiac.edu id AA10208 (InterLock SMTP Gateway 3.0 for
rara-avis@icomm.ca); Mon, 31 Aug 1998 13:14:36 -0400
Message-Id: <199808311714.AA10208@gw.quinnipiac.edu>
Received: by gw.quinnipiac.edu (Internal Mail Agent-1); Mon, 31 Aug 1998
13:14:36 -0400
From: "Engel, Len Prof." <engell@quinnipiac.edu>
To: "'rara-avis'" <rara-avis@icomm.ca>
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Lawrence Block
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 13:20:00 -0400
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.0.1460.8)
Content-Type: text/plain
Sender: owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: rara-avis@icomm.ca

Based on some of the comments made on this list, I picked up one of
Block's books, THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL, and I'm part way through, but I'm
having difficulty. Is this one of his better works? Could someone say
something to recommend this book, or give me some insights that I'm missing.
Any comments would be appreciated.

Len Engel
Quinnipiac College
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.

--WebTV-Mail-296268886-845--
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.