--- Doug Bassett <
dj_bassett@yahoo.com> wrote:
> My take on female PIs is that I have nothing
against
> the notion in theory, but in practice it seems
too
> often like a contrivance. (Outside of Angie
in
> Dennis
> Lehane's work.) Most seem to me to be just
"chicks
> with dicks", basically unconvincing females
and
> unconvincing PIs. Marcia Muller is the female
PI
> writer I know best -- her work is incredibly
dull,
> basically Ross Macdonald-lite.
Doug, I think this is well-taken, and I agree, except that I
haven't read Lehane yet and I have trouble equating Macdonald
and "dull." But I agree that the female PI characters I've
read have been unconvincing.
On the other hand, what do I know about women? Grafton
could fill her novels with convincingly realistic nuances
about being a woman, and they'd go over my head at about the
same height as my wife's subtle hints about upcoming
anniversaries.
(Just kidding; I remember our anniversary.)
Anyway, on the topic of woman PI's, is anyone familiar with
ANGEL DANCE by M.F. Beal? I recently read it described as a
lesbian hard-boiled detective novel, by which I assume the
author and/or protagonist, or both, are lesbians--I'm kind of
assuming it's both. However, the critic who wrote this
description is a feminist critic, which is where her
expertise lies. She may be the world's leading expert on
hard-boiled literature, but it seems more likely that she
wouldn't know h-b from H&K, so to speak.
Does anyone know anything at all about this novel? I've
looked in a couple of academic databases with very little
luck.
G.
===== George C. Upper III, Editor The Lightning Bell Poetry
Journal http://www.lightningbell.org/
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