----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Thornton" <
tieresias@worldnet.att.net>
> While we're on the subject of Hammett's work, I just
finished "Woman In
The
> Dark", which was serialized in two installments in
Liberty magazine in
> 1933. It is interesting to note that the piece of
fiction he published
> after this was "The Thin Man", and I think I can see
why. This is a
> novelette (75 pages) that really doesn't seem to
know what to do with
> itself. There is good characterization and a
promising start, but the
> unconvincing ending seems slapped together, and
uneven. Had he been in
> better form/health, Hammett could have fleshed this
story out
considerably,
> and he might have had something here. As it is, it
remains a flawed
> masterpiece with too-swift transitions in the last
ten or so pages.
>
> It almost seems as if he ran out of gas and was just
in a hurry to finish
> and sell it. Anyone else read this one?
Thoughts?
Some time ago when I read it, but I found it disappointing.
Not that hardboiled, from what I recall, and "masterpiece"
certainly never crossed my mind - flawed or otherwise. For
me, bad endings are unforgiveable. At least with bad openings
you don't have to continue, but when you've invested so much
time and the ending sucks, you lose faith in the author. Or
at least I do. I was on a Hammett binge at the time. "Woman
In The Dark" stopped it dead in its tracks.
Al
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