<<good to see you back.>>
Thanks.
<<did you read faulkner's "the bear"? whoops! i guess
thats not hardboiled so its not discussable here. _as i lay
dying_ is my favorite faulkner.>>
I went and read everything by him, including his short
stories, which this time seemed even better.
<<i searched the archives after i read cormac
mccarthy's _blood meridian_ and noticed that you had
commented on him. i guess i'm going to read _child of god_
next. incest, rape, and murder. oh boy! my favorites! i think
i'll avoid that trilogy work. it sounded like it got a bit
sentimental and
"lonesome dovish" to me. i'll pass on that.>>
Sentimental? It's ultrahardboiled stuff, from beginning to
end. I don't think there's a tougher book out there
than
_All the Pretty Horses_. In this case, it's great literature,
in no small part, *because* of its extreme hardboiledness.
And it's not fictional in the sense that there are lots of
brutes like that in this country and in every country.
A point worth making, a conjecture worth making, is that, had
Jim Thompson and David Goodis been masters of language
(like Cormac), their books would undoubtedly be celebrated
even by the critics who despise the genres. Goodis and
Thompson, Thomson and Thompson I almost said, excuse I have
kids who read that stuff, hit on a lot of material very
similar to Faulkner's, O'Connor's and McCarthy's. I think
they should be grouped with them, under Tough Literature with
Devious and Tortuously Flawed (and Doomed) Guys, or something
short, sweet and academic like that.
By the way, you can find several of McCarthy's books,
including the trilogy, in the bargain bins at large
bookstores. I saw them recently down in Tennessee. The
hardcovers must be out of print, so they're getting rid of
them.
Best,
MrT
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