Re: RARA-AVIS: i've been listening (Chandler + Ellroy)

From: Doug Bassett ( dj_bassett@yahoo.com)
Date: 20 Apr 2001


--- Jim Beaver < jumblejim@prodigy.net> wrote:
> >
> > I will never understand this, because I should
> love the stuff without
> > question, but I always have trouble getting
> through the Chandler work. I
> > read it, and it's so nice, but I just get stuck,
> and I've never known why,
> > exactly.
> >
>
> I suppose it's what it always gets ascribed to,
> personal tastes

True enough. If you start to dig heavily into any one genre, you'll inevitably stumble across writers that don't speak to you, even though every other fan you meet seems to like them. Here's a couple of mine -- one past, one recent:

Phillip Atlee -- Tried to read THE SILKEN BARONESS CONTRACT a little while ago and couldn't finish it. I found it oddly dull, to tell you the truth, and not particularly insightful about a spy's lot in life.
(I've tried to read THE GREEN WOUND CONTRACT three times and have yet to finish it.) So that's it for me and Mr. Atlee -- too bad, really, 'cause this is just the sort of thing I like, normally.

Robert Crais -- The early novels strike me as bad Parker knock-offs. LA REQUIEM was recommended as a departure from the formula -- it was, but to my mind not in a good way. I found this also rather tedious, and the plot twists and turns incredibly obvious. Also, oddly enough, the more I learned about Pike the less interested I was in the character -- which probably says more about me, what I expect from stories, than it does about the book's quality.

Point here is, these authors probably aren't "bad" -- it's just I can't hear whatever tune they're singing.

doug

===== Doug Bassett dj_bassett@yahoo.com

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