Alison Gordon (aligor@interlog.com)
Tue, 13 Jul 1999 08:54:46 -0400
(First, my apologies to the listowner for whatever havoc I
may have caused by sending this message to the major domo
address in error. It was early morning, if that's an
excuse.)
I can vaguely recall being impressed by Burke when I
read his earlier books, but found they interested me less and
less as the series progressed. Electric Mist was the last I
bought (or the last that's in my bookcase, anyway.) Then,
last summer, at a friend's cottage I read a couple of his
subsequent ones back-to-back on a rainy afternoon. Big
mistake. All his excesses are magnified when you read too
much of him at once. And, sumptuous as his writing might be,
it's the prose equivalent of empty calories. (I have taken to
calling him "The Weather Man", for obvious reasons). And
Robichaud's angst drives me nuts.
This all came home to me when I was asked by the program
guide for Bravo, the Canadian arts channel, to do a very
short essay on Burke, whose biography is airing next month
(not sure when, but will let you know when I do). I had
accepted the assignment absent-mindedly, before I remembered
how I felt about him. But, hey, they were offering me actual
money (well, the Canadian approximation of same) so I wrote
it anyway, in such a way that only other people who think he
is pretentious will get what I'm really saying. I hope.
Alison Gordon aligor@interlog.com
-- # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Tue 13 Jul 1999 - 08:54:39 EDT