hello everyone,
well i've just about finished red harvest. although i've read
a lot of mystery and detective novels, like burke, michael
connelly, martin cruz smith, mcbain, ridley pearson, i'm
thinking that hammet is really my first experience with REAL
hardboiled crime fiction. the con op guy is a tougher hombre
and more ruthless than vachss's burke.
i've got mixed feelings about it. i like hammett's clean
prose and the fast pace. and to be honest, its refreshing to
find something outside the stuff i'm used to, which seems to
be somewhat watered down by the present political correctness
theme (even vachss's burke is major politically
correct).
i hesitate to level criticism at something that i don't
understand (hb), so i'll just comment. the novels that really
grab me are the ones that draw me into the characters. ridley
pearson's lou boldt, connelly's harry bosch, martin cruz
smith's arkaky, harris's lecter and starling come to mind.
they make me feel something strongly, be it compassion,
revulsion, pity. love or hate. empathy is what i'm looking
for.
hammett tells a lean mean exciting story in red harvest, but
the con op has so far failed to move me... even his breakdown
confession to dinah seems out of character, forced, and
awkward.
but i'm still enjoying it. i'm really anxious to read
thompson's _killer inside me_, denton's _blackburn_, and one
of the two pelecano's i bought, but i've arranged the dozen
or so hbs i bought in copyright order and i'm gonna try to
stick with that. anyway, i'm gonna read the maltese falcon
next, and then move on to chandler's big sleep.
hope i haven't offended the hammet people out there. my
comments should be taken as more of a reflection on me than
on the time-tested skills of hammett.
miker
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