Carrie:
<<I've liked Ed McBain's, Ben Benson's and Collin
Wilcox's police procedurals, even though there are no deep
characterizations.>>
I have not read Benson, but I know the work of McBain and
Wilcox very well. Why do you say their characterizations
aren't "deep"? True, neither of them has created as powerful
a character as, say, Mario Balzic or Easy Rawlins, but that
doesn't mean that their characters are cartoons or
dummies.
I am beginning to suspect a forked path here: some readers
consider that the character is real if it speaks *to them*,
whereas others prefer characters that speak *to the story*.
Because I am distant by nature, I prefer the second
kind
(but not exclusively, else I would have to throw Balzic and
much else out the window).
[Captain Bill, please look the other way:]
Speaking of bloated versus spare narrative styles, let me
recommend a masterpiece I saw the other day on video. It's
called An Affair of Love (Une liaison d'amour) and could
serve as a corrective model for writers who have gotten
bloated. Outstanding performances by Nathalie Baye and Sergi
Lopez.
Regards,
MrT
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