It's also one of his _best_ books and one of the finest P.I.
novels of
the seventies.
<<As a matter of fact, almost ANY first person private
eye book is
Chander-esque! His influence is so powerful, invariably, one
starts
writing like him -- with the same kind of ironic detached
description,
the retorts, etc.. Not only that, most fictional PI's end up
BEING
MARLOWE themselves -- few writers have been able to escape
that
characterization. Elvis Cole, etc, so many of the
contemporary guys are
just Marlowe in disguise.>>
As always, what endures are great characters - in Chandler's
case, a
character that became an archetype - and a style that yields
gold in his
hands but causes irreparable rot when anybody else gets too
close to it.
Despite his aspirations, I would not say that Ellroy is as
good a writer
today as Chandler was in his prime. On the other hand, I see
no urgent
need to compare those two writers; I enjoy them both, but for
completely
different reasons.
Regards,
MT
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