At 11:34 AM 5/20/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Haven't read any Pronzini's fiction, so I
can't
>comment on that, but I have read some of his
entries
>in a huge encyclopedia of Mystery fiction entitled
the
>St. James Guide (I think). They're very well done
--
>Pronzini obviously knows the field well and can
speak
>intelligently about it. (He has also contributed
to
>the St. James Encylopedia of Western fiction,
where
>he's equally interesting. Again, not sure of the
title
>-- read these in a library).
>
>I agree, too, that he's an excellent
editor.
>
>Doesn't pay, in my opinion, to get overexcited
about
>comments like the Pronzini one under discussion.
Ain't
>nobody in the world exempt from making dumb
comments,
>and that's all this is, a dumb comment. It's just
Mr.
>Pronzini's bad luck to have his dumb
comment
>immortalized in print for the rest of us to laugh
at.
>
One of the most interesting,
and infuriating, books I have read is Julian Symons's _Mortal
Consequences_. It hopes to be a definitive survey of the
mystery novel up through the mid-seventies. Very opinionated,
and guaranteed to annoy practically every reader somewhere.
Symons demonstrates a fairly encylopediac knowledge of the
field and is often right on target in matters relating to the
strength and weaknesses of various authors. He is also
contemptously, and often unfairly, dismissive of various
scribes, especially if they are dead.
The perceptive opinions of decent
writers and humans often exist cheek to jowl with bizarre
opinions. Tolstoy told Chekov to stick to prose and give up
drama because his plays were "terrible, almost as bad as
Shakespeare's". True story. Of course, he hated his own books
too.
James
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