At 10:29 PM 8/10/00 -0500, you wrote:
>He is too slow in pacing for some readers, but that's
because he doesn't
>just take his protagonist through different locations
and encounters on the
>way to a climax. Nick enjoys drinking, sometimes
snorting, and the game of
>selling a line to someone, and that translates into
unexpected experiences
>along the way. Pelecanos is excellent on the frenetic
world of discount
>(appliance) selling or, for my money, the feel of
certain restaurants and
>bars, either as places one works or places one lives.
And, his shootouts
>are carefully staged, with equal parts of planning
and spontaneous action
>determining the outcome.
Sounds a little like Lawrence Block's "When the Sacred
Ginmill Closes," which is ostensibly a mystery but actually a
book about the characters whose lives are lived through the
bars they frequent. I think it's Block's masterwork, but not
hard-boiled. The rest of the Matthew Scudder series is
straight genre fiction.
So, did anyone else read "Chinaman's Chance?"
Ray
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