Etienne Borgers (freeweb@rocketmail.com)
Wed, 10 Nov 1999 01:11:01 -0800 (PST)
Charles Williams seems to have written 23 novels, and in my
documentation I do not find the title you mention.
I red at least 18 or 19 of them. It's one of the writers that
hooked me to the HB genre, with Hammett and JD Mc Donald...
long, long time ago (maybe even on another planet?). Looking
back I realize how lucky I was to have found these authors,
when you compare them to the heap of trash the popular lit
(mysteries included) was producing in the USA and Europe
during the 50's and 60's, trash that was widely
distributed.
In French speaking Europe, Williams was considered already in
these days as one of the greats...just next the classics of
HB, his reputation growing until his unfortunate death.
This Charles Williams, the Texan, is the story teller of
incredible scams, unfortunate turns of fate and struggling
counter-heroes trying their last run to get somewhere. In
terrific books. His first "original" book: River Girl (1951)
was already of this breed (before this, there were 2 novels
in a more naturalistic vein, but I do not recall to have red
them).
Do not miss novels such as: Nothing in her Way The Big Bite
The Long Saturday Night and even: A Touch of Death
also the better known: The Sailcloth Shroud and Dead
Calm.
There is more, but it's a good start.
And, by any means, do not overlook 'The Diamond Bikini'
(1957), or bootleg country explained by a small boy 7/8 years
old, who's telling the story... A masterpiece of humor! not
at all in line with the other C.Williams works, but
remarkably written. The follow-up with the same set of
characters: 'Uncle Sagamore and his Girls' is still funny,
and enjoyable, but does not reach the achievements of the
first novel.
Yes, this Charles Williams was a great HB author, and a
complete commented biography should be something urgent to
publish. Is there really no American university that could
harbor such a publication? I understand that due to the
feeble recognition Charles Williams got in his own country,
such an essay will be a specialist book, not interesting
ordinary publishing houses. But hey! universities...? are
they not the shrines of culture?
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
--- Staffars Serier <boss@staffars.se>
wrote:
> Hum. I have a book by one Charles Williams,
called
> "The Wrong Venus".
> Haven't read it for ten years, but I don't
think
> it's HB. So would
> that be the right guy?
>
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