RARA-AVIS: Clutching at Straw Dogs


Kevin Smith (kvnsmith@colba.net)
Sun, 18 Jul 1999 11:11:39 -0400


Some random thoughts on the last digest:

John Ridley's book is STRAY DOGS, not STRAW DOGS, isn't it?

Because STRAW DOGS was a movie back in the late sixties/early seventies, directed by Sam Peckinpah, with Dustin Hoffman as a wimpy American math professor who tries to escape the violence in the States by moving to a farm in the U.K., only to find there's no real escape. It was based on a book called THE SIEGE OF TRENCHER'S FARM by Gordon Williams (who later teamed up with a British football player to write three hardboiled novels featuring London P.I. James Hazell).

I haven't seen the film for years, but I seem to remember it as being pretty nasty stuff. In fact, according to the cassette cover (which I just spotted yesterday in a video store), it was, and still is, banned from being screened in England. Is this true?

And William Denton wrote:

>Did Westlake just do some service for a while, or was he in a war? And on a
>more current note, what's he doing now, does anyone know? I'm not a big
>fan of his light-hearted books, but _The Ax_ and the Parker books are
>magnificent.

Bill, do yourself a favor and track down the books he wrote as Tucker Coe, as well.

Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/ Now available! Our Summer Issue, focussing on Radio Private Eyes, plus new fiction by Peter Parmantie and Kathy Korty.

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