Hello everyone,
My name is Brian Thornton, and I live in the decidedly
soft-boiled city of Seattle, Washington. I have been lurking
here for a few days, and am thrilled at the level of
conversation on this decidedly active list.
I am a huge fan of both Hammett and Chandler (go back and
forth over the question of which one I like better), and am
currently working my way through Ross MacDonald's work (loved
The Zebra Striped Hearse). Although I enjoy his work, I'm not
sure it ranks with the first two.
I decided to make my jump into the discussion here by
weighing in on the question of Parker's "legacy" if you will,
because I feel that I am a perfect example of the type of
person Parker introduced to the genre with his innovations,
and who has gone on to enjoy other writers therein. My first
Parker book was "Early Autumn". I started it on a road-trip
and was so taken with it, I started reading long passages of
his dialogue to the guy who was driving (in between peals of
laughter), and he was soon laughing too. I was hooked.
As for Parker's work being "predictable", I agree that after
two or three books he seldom surprises, but the dialogue is
so good that I find that and his carelessness with his
proof-reading to be eminently forgivable. This might have
something to do with the fact that I am currently working on
the third (and final) draft of my own first crime novel, and
am inclined to be forgiving, because this draft and revise
carousel ride can sure get tedious!
Thanks for having me!
Brian Thornton
At 07:41 AM 5/9/02 -0400, you wrote: I think Lyons is one of
the great underrated PI writers of the last twenty-five
years. I never understood why Parker became so successful and
Lyons remained obscure. Lyons is three times the craftsman
Parker is, even in his early years.
Three times? Gee.
Well, I like Lyons too. A lot. He's got off some of the
finest Chandleresque one-liners of the last few
decades.
But it's not like the success of Parker had any effect on
Lyons' success, except maybe helping him sell a few more
books (not enough, evidently, though). I've also heard Parker
sort of sideways-bashed in the same way during discussions of
Estlemen, Pronzini, Randisi and other P.I. writers of a
certain era. And in actual books by several of his
contemporaries. It's not one of the more admirable traits of
some members of the PWA.
Obviously, Parker's success rankles a lot of people in this
genre. And no, not everybody has to like his books. But his
success didn't prevent anyone else from succeeding, so the
regular griping from his peers usually comes off more as sour
grapes than anything.
Parker's big sin is he wrote books people liked to read. How
dare he! And he tinkered with the formula and put enough of a
personal and contemporary spin on it to bring in new readers,
without betraying its roots. Lyons, on the other hand, stuck
with the tried and true. His Acsh harks back more to the
traditions set down forty, fifty years ago. In his own way,
he's as anachronistic as Estleman's Walker, albeit from a
left-wing viewpoint.
So maybe that explains his success, at least partially. Lyons
wrote stuff people who already like this stuff will enjoy,
which is a fine thing. Hell, I'm one of them. Parker wrote
stuff that could appeal to those same folks, but he pushed
the boundaries a bit more, and appealed to new readers as
well. Which is also fine. And he did it with a prose style
that's very readable.
As for Erick's comment that Parker's stuff is cliché²idden? I
dunno. Half the cliché³ Parker's always accused of, he
popularized. He certainly took a few more chances with the
form than a lot of his contemporaries. No, they weren't
always successful innovations, but they sure were influential
in the genre. So somebody must have liked them.
--
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