Good to see MT back on the list.
Here's a little quotation about work from A WALK IN THE
JUNGLE a 1975 Pinnacle Book. The speaker is the book's
narrator, a former professional killer for the U.S.
Government:
"I liked the work. I quit because I didn't like being a
killer. Notice that's a nice intellectual distinction there.
I wasn't afraid of being killed. I didn't mind killing. I
didn't want to think of myself as a killer. So I quit. . . .
I had liked the work."
I picked this book up the other day, and in spite of a few
implausibilities, it's very fast-moving and tough. Here's a
sample of the narrator's sensibility, when he describes how
hard it is not to cry out when you experience a sudden
fall:
"I threw an Egyptian out of a helicopter once. He screamed
when he started to fall and he was as good a man as I ever
saw. He didn't scream when the Israeli cut off his nipples,
but he screamed when he went out of the helicopter."
Bill Crider
At 09:22 PM 04/08/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>After a long hiatus, I've finally able to get back to
the
>list -- and to hardboiled fiction.
>
>Recently read and enjoyed:
>
>Donald Westlake's The Busy Body (1966). A really
fine
>thriller, teetering between hardboiled and humorous
caper.
>His fiction has tremendous staying power. I had
missed this
>one, but it's worth checking out.
>
>Lawrence Block's Sometimes They Bite (1983). A
great
>collection of short stories spanning two decades.
Some are
>hilarious, and a few are bone-chilling, pure horror.
Two
>are ultrahardboiled. If you find this book, don't
pass it
>up.
>
>Hugh Pentecost's Remember to Kill Me (1988), which
catches
>the veteran writer in a midboiled mood but with
chops
>intact. Some unusually good dialogue, suspense
througout,
>and here and there the touches that give away the
former
>pulpster. I found this paperback by chance (library
sale).
>
>Best regards,
>
>Mario Taboada
>
>
>
>=====
>* Mario Taboada *
matrxtech@yahoo.com *
>
>"The world does not contain any information. It is as
it
>is." I. Illich, _Tools for Conviviality_.
>
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