Hello again from a lurker... You can call this piece of Rara
Avis e-mail Educating Ruth- Hard-Boiled.
I've been reading books suggested as well as our assigned
reading. I lurk trying to understand the sub-genre that is
Hard-Boiled. MR. WHITE'S CONFESSION was a recent read for an
unrelated group. We read it because of the Edgar. Many
members in my mostly female group gave it up right away.They
didn't like the prose. Other's loved it . I'm in the later
group and am hoping that perhaps a few of you will read my
poorly expressed feelings on the book... think about them a
bit and try to help me with where I am in the road to
understanding your favorite sub-genre. Thank you, ruth
I was wowed by this book. I Started reading it late for a
mystery group and fully intended to read it as "a book to be
reviewed and talked about". Does that make sense to anyone
here? I was sucked in by the style and the sadness of this
read so much that within chapters I was simply turning pages
and trying to digest it all. Now I've been thinking about the
book for a couple of days and for what it's worth this is
what I've come up with.
In the first chapters I found the book "trying for
hard-boiled" and not getting there. The Police were
dispicable, the hero was awful and the women no great shakes
either. I found myself thinking... what's all the fuss about
and why is this hard-boiled?
In my own little "hard-boiled" definition this sect of
mystery fiction is indeed always full of corruption but must
have at least one player whose travel through the story lends
a "moral quotient". If that's not there then I think the book
has little or nothing to add to hard-boiled. Face it, this
male dominated part of Mystery can piss off Miss Marple most
of the time with it's treatment of the Femme. So what I do
read I want to be good.
And then came Horner... so his daughter left,his wife died
and he was alone in this small house. He worked with people
he tried to believe weren't as
"humane" as the good Lieutenant Wesley.Sorry sport. Taking in
a young girl in the year 2000 out of pity and and a desire to
be shagged again isn't acceptable let alone in the time frame
this tale is drawn.And yet... I believe Clark did something
important here. He showed us that it wasn't acceptable. When
Maggie, a young under educated girl is the first person to
actually look at the evidence and let's Horner know any fool
can see the guy is innocent, Horner thinks it's rot. Buys her
a coat, gets lost "in the volcano of her curves". Knows if
she leaves he'll "die". The guy sure doesn't have much
respect for himself . He thinks her this "unworthy" and yet
will be lost if she leaves... PLEEASE. In the realm of life
he is pathetic. And still remains so at the books
conclusion.Clarks prose shows us this with a sadness that had
me going back through the book trying to find a definitive
sentence. I couldn't.
On Maggie... Yuck.... She tries , she fails,she's raped, she
leaves, she becomes a mother nine months later. And yet she
is the defender of Truth, Justice and the American Dream!!A
sad girl making her way through a sad life. Ruby ... I like
her. Drawn by Mr. White's shyness.Not willing to define why
she's attracted and/or flattered by his attentions. She rings
as more real than anyone else in this story. Notice I said
real and not likeable. Mr. White. Met in real life I'd run.
Plain and simple. His diaries however are wonderful in such a
small and unpretentious way.And upon his release from prison
I felt real sadness for him. To be given "past" at last while
in prison and then not to be able to remember it? Love lost
is sorrowful and this book tells it so well. Still, I don't
think this is hard-boiled. The diaries are what sets it
apart, what makes it sing a song of sadness. While I can
think of hard-boiled told in two voices the diaries of Mr.
White's Confessions don't fall within my narrow definition.
Perhaps Corner's resignation from the police force is meant
to be a penance for bad behavior. Perhaps this is supposed to
be the moral. If so, it doesn't work for me because the
players are so BAD there can be no redemption. Putting a
band-aid on guilt with paper and pencils and yearly letters
to the parole board only shows the man's shallowness at least
matches that of his former playmates. It is the kind of self
serving crap that makes me mad in a lot of mystery fiction
denoument. Yet here too, Clark shines. He realizes
this.Writes it that way. The Corner part of the tale is
resolved with toss away kleenex while Clark saves the linen
hanky for Mr. White. It is perhaps Mr. Clark's readers who
don't see this .... who want to catagorize a story not meant
to be catagorized.
To prove my point I'll ask you to consider the "mystery
solved" portion of the book.Tossed in a trunk. Do you think
maybe Clark was hitting us over the head with a frying pan
with this tiny piece of symbolism?? After reading the rest of
the book I have reason to believe so.
So MR WHITE"S CONFESSION may well hold up a mirror to
hard-boiled but I think Clark is trying to strip that genre
bare not pay hommage to it.
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