<<Whether or not Joyce Carol Oates likes Cain and
Chandler, she is an
interesting writer, whose attitude is indeed often
ambiguous.>>
I must disagree. She strikes me as an angry writing machine
without much
substance. For a while I mistook her obvious facility with
words for
literary talent. When I think back on her books, all I
retrieve is a
blur of political screeds, angry commentary on "issues", and
a nasty
take on men. To stay on topic: I fail to see what exactly
qualifies her
to be a critic of crime fiction. Why did a review of
Chandler's Library
of America reissue -- the first appearance of a crime writer
in that
series -- go to her, of all people? She has neither sympathy
nor
understanding for the genre (in fact, she despises it). She
also,
incredibly, fails to make allowances for people who were
writing in a
different era.
Regards,
MrT
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