Doug Levin:
. > (Does it sleet in Galveston or Mobile, or is it a
different gulf?) Can
> someone say something about the trends in/imperative
toward naming your
city?
> McBain's fictional city is obviously New York, but
there are other
fictional
> cities that could be any medium-sized port city, or
a moderate-sized
> midwestern city. I thought that maybe the hope was
that readers would
imagine
> their own city or a city they knew and inject
themselves into the scene,
so
> to speak. Do publishers and readers today want
places named? (Though the
> great crime novel of Portland -- Kent Anderson's
Night Dogs -- benefits
from
>-
Doug, At least before global warming, at least, occasionally
there certainly could be sleet and temperatures around
freezing in those cities In one of miker's favorites books, A
Garden of Sand, there are scenes set in Mobile in where the
weather gets pretty nasty.
I hadn't realized Night Dogs was set in Portland. With both
my kids probably settling there for a while I'll have to make
sure I read it soon.
As to your general question we have discussed how both McBain
and Lehane in Mystic River have set their books in a definite
city but don't want to name it so they won't have to deal
with quibbles if they make a mistake or choose alter the
actual geography.
Personally I enjoy reading books set in a city I'm familiar
with rather than a generic one. Even if I don't know a city I
feel it makes seem more real to me if characters going down
actual streets or living in real area as opposed to the whole
thing being made out of the author's imagination. Mark
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