Woody,
As I understood you read French, it's easier for me to give
references.
Concerning Manchette, there was a special issue of Polar
(hors s鲩e) devoted to the writer. Interesting of course but
not definitive. As he did his film reviews for French comic
magazines (Charlie, and others) that I read at the time,
that's how I was familiar with this aspect of his production.
For books reviews, it was through Polar that I knew them (in
the old series and during the beginnings of the new series -
new series that stopped last year only...no No 24 as far as I
know), and for his views on lit it was also through
specialized publications. His positions can be very
manicheist at certain times, but he goes rarely wrong. He was
the one for instance who detected and defended the qualities
of Ellroy in France at the early stage of Ellroy's career. He
was also a translator (from English into French - more than
60 books, including Ross Thomas). He wrote approx. 10 film
scripts, and one TV series. He wrote also some juveniles, and
other things outside crime/mystery. He stopped writing
fiction (at his peak, in 1982-3) because he was sincerely
convinced that this type of communication had great
limitations, with the risk of repetition and lack of original
matters being the worse
(in fiction in general and in art). He died in 1995.
City Lights (of San Francisco I guess?) chose Manchette's two
best novels, LA POSITION DU TIREUR COUCHÉ (1982) the best
HB/noir novel he wrote, but maybe the most difficult to
approach. It was also his last one. TROIS HOMMES A ABATTRE,
is the title of the film based on his novel : "Le petit bleu
de la cô´¥ Ouest" (1976)- later re-published with the film
title. As I live now in continental Europe since last year, I
didn't see these translations yet.
"snapshot of society" Manchette and certainly Pouy could have
spoken about a part of the polar genre as a snapshot of the
modern life, society etc, as it's one of the characteristics
of the HB/noir genre they both promoted. This expression was
used by many, inclusive some publishers. One of the rather
recent imprints was even Instantané³ (=snapshots) by reference
to this idea.
E.Borgers Hard-boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
Polar Noir http://www.geocities.com/polarnoir
At 08:15 19-08-02 EDT, you wrote:
>
><< Helena >>
>
>Etienne
>I think it was an interview with Pouy that I saw the
reference to Manchette
>and the origin of the term "polar." Though it might
have been that he was
>saying that Manchette gave the term added meaning by
thinking of his fiction
>as a "snapshot of society." By the way, Helena's Les
Flics... and Le Bon
Dieu
>have been, or will soon be, reprinted in France,
while his Defense du roman
>noir also appears in Polar 23. And speaking of
Manchette, have you come
>across the City Lights translations of, presumably,
La position du tireur
>couché ¡nd Trois hommes á ¡battre. One hopes they will
sell well enough for
>City Lights to publish more such work, by Manchette
and others, but sort of
>doubt it. I always liked Manchette's film and
literary reviews, and just
>ordered Chroniques and Les yeux du momie published by
Rivage. Any comments
on
>either of these? Don't know why I haven't come across
them before,
>particularly since I seem to spend an inordinate
amount of time in French
>bookshops.
>Woody Haut
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