> The PI story HAS become more
>international in recent years, but for many
years,
>particularly the years immediately post-Chandler,
it
>was almost exclusively the province of
American
>characters.
At least those written by American authors. There may be more
P.I.s in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophy,
Horatio.
There have many Non-American P.I.s written by non-American
P.I.s, not just recently but going back at least as far as
French writer Leo Malet's Nestor Burma, who made his debut in
the early forties and who's actually supposed to be one of
this month's themes.
Any way you cut it, Malet was an interesting writer, not just
allegedly inspired by Chandler but also a contemporary, and
Nestor Burma an extremely interesting detective, an overtly
political eye pounding the mean streets of occupied, and
later post-war, France. Has anyone read him, in either
English or even better, French? And has anyone read any of
the graphic novel adaptations by Jacques Tardi? I'd love to
hear some thoughts on him, and how he's regarded these days
in France.
The Burma series was one of the longest running P.I. series,
in terms of number of novels, and I think Malet should be
considered a major contributor to the P.I. genre, perhaps not
on the level of the Holy Three or Four, but miles and miles
above those derivative hacks who sought to ape Chandler
without once displaying any clear understanding of what
Chandler was really doing.
--
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