Born days before Neil Armstrong took his walk around the
block. Expensively but uselessly educated in London, I was
and remain a dreadful book snob. I remember turning my nose
up at a friend in school who was reading James Bond books. I
thought reading was only for good stuff. The flip side was
that I lapped up The Rockford Files, marvelled at Chinatown,
inhaled the Dark Knight Detective. After university and my
thesis on Arthur Miller (there should be a good case for A
View From A Bridge as hard-boiled theatre), I entered the
real world woefully ill-prepared. Fortunately my first job
put me in contact with a Chandler obsessed crime freak. He
was a no-good gambler with nothing left in his world but his
paperbacks and before we parted he left some of them to me.
The first book he gave me was The Big Sleep and he signed all
his notes 'Terry Lennox'. I was hooked. I'm still a Lit snob
but I will argue the importance of Ellroy, Chandler and
Walter Mosely to Modern Literature without irony. I was
pleased someone finally mentioned In Cold Blood. I don't know
of a single book that has 'blown away' more people than
Capote's book. I still read Vachss for fun but it's not as
much fun as tracking down Stark's Parker novels.
Daniel Sevitt
danielse@amdocs.com 00 972 9 776 3745
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