Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: RARA-AVIS Digest V3 #227

From: Anne Stancek ( astancek@execulink.com)
Date: 24 May 2000


Mario Taboada wrote:

> <<I am convinced that Adams did everything he could to make him as
> unsympathetic and unlikable as possible. It is too far over the line to be an
> accident. Cringe? Let me quote an oft-quoted line from McBride: "What this
> country goddamned well needs is a Gestapo.">>
>
> It's hard to imagine the mindset of the (evidently male) readers of Cleve
> Adams's novels, but there's no question that he was popular. What that tells me
> is that lots of guys in this country a) liked McBride and b) agreed with him
> (about the need for a Gestapo and similar institutions). So what we see as a
> deliberately unlikable protagonist may have been in fact an extreme case of
> playing to the gallery. It's not a gallery I would like to frequent.
>
> By the way, I don't think Cleve Adams has been written about much. His extreme
> paranoia and fascistic attitudes would make a nice topic for a thesis, maybe in
> a double-barrelled study that also includes Spillane.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mario
>
> __________________________________________________

Can someone give me a list of Adams' books? Does any particular one stand out?

Andrew

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