hi everybody!
one of the things i've noted in reading first person novels
is the difficulty in developing characters, since the depth
of the sup- porting cast is limited to dialogue and
observations of the pro- tagonist. you can't see what they do
outside of the protagonist's eyes, and you can't know their
thoughts.
it began to occur to me that first person narrative sorta
sucks be- cause of that. and then i read my first crumley
novel, _the last good kiss_. its written in first person and
the characters are superbly and subtly and beautifully drawn.
i thought on it for a while and decided that it was because
sughrue, the main character, spends a lot of time with the
characters, giving crumley plenty of opportunity to flesh
them out. but that just wasn't accurate. crumley does a great
job of knocking out even the bit players, like selma and
stacy.
many moons ago i read a book by anne rice, a prominent
contemporary horror writer. the narrative stated that a girl
is charmed by a witty and wise conversation with some guy (i
think the book was _the mummy_). i remember getting a bad
feeling about that right off the bat. my feeling was, "tell
me what he said and i'll decide for myself." i got the
distinct feeling that she wasn't capable of writing it and
was sidestepping the real work.
crumley can write dialogue... sharp, intelligent, and
revealing, bringing depth to his characters and forwarding
the plot. sughrue's world-weary attitude and witty cynicisms,
often delivered as one- liners, encourages comparison with
chandler's marlowe. i've only read chandler's _big sleep_,
and i hesitate (not really) to dis the master, but i'd say
that crumley does a better job with women than chandler.
rosie, catherine, betty sue, and even trahearne's mother come
thru as distinct and believable and more convincing
characters than either of the sternwood sisters.
crumley even does a GREAT job of developing characters that
don't have a single line. fireball, the drunken bulldog with
a preference for japanese beer, is a far more interesting and
successful char- acter than spillane's pat chambers in _i,
the jury_.
crumley's _the last good kiss_ is the best book i've read
since mccarthy's _blood meridian_.
miker
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