I recently read Margo Pierce Dorksen' _Muzzy,_ which features
the perspective of a carpenter just getting out of jail for
wrecking a bar. His wife's filed for divorce and taken over
his double-wide and pickup, and his boss has fired him. The
only friend who's stuck by him offers floor space in his
attic apartment.
He takes a job delivering pizzas so
as not to keep sponging off his roofer pal, and a pretty good
mystery develops from there. This book is rare in that it
comes from a blue-collar worldview and to my ears sounds
real, not a working man's point of view as imagined by an
ambitious writer or a sympathetically condescending academic.
I recommend it to you. It's definitely colloquial, and Terry
Saltz is definitely tough.
Yet, I don't think it's hardboiled.
There's no angst, no "attitude." He sees that he sometimes
scares customers because he's big and pony-tailed and
rough-looking, and so he tries to come across as congenial
because he doesn't want to slow down the transaction (speed
is all in making enough money in pizza delivery) or cut his
tip. He's overall realistic, takes things as they are and
makes the best of them without self-pity or resentment or
envy.
If any one's read this, what's your
take on "colloquial" and
"hardboiled" in its context?
Joy, who also notes this book is very well produced, with a
pizza box on the cover
RE:
From: "JIM DOHERTY" <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com>
> Terrill,
>
> Re your comment below:
>
> > I'm with you on this one, John. I've always
thought
> > the speech pattern thing
> > was a little narrow in focus. Miker, as usual,
hit
> > that one with the bright
> > glare of innocent (and humorous)
logic.
>
> Even mute people have ways of expressing
themselves,
> and the way they express themselves will depend
on
> their attitude, and their worldview at least as
much
> as their handicap. "Colloquial" refers to a
rude,
> rough-edged way of expressing oneself. It's
an
> essential component of hard-boiled, because it's
the
> way the hard-boiled attitude is expressed.
What
> distinguished Hammett and the rest was not plot
(there
> were just as many clues and classical puzzles),
or,
> necessarily, milieu (much of, say, THE DAIN CURSE
and
> THE BIG SLEEP take place in upper-class drawing
room
> settings because the heroes' clients are
upper-class),
> or even the level of violence (check out the climax
of
> THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES for an expertly
produced
> action scene). It was the language, the language
of
> tough, direct working men. The way the
character
> expresses himself, verbally or non-verbally, is
an
> essential component.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
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