Just finished ASSIGNMENT PEKING by Aarons (sp?) and PETERS
PENCE by Jon Cleary. The Cleary novel was not really bad, but
it was more in the thriller category and not what I would
call very hardboiled. I think it was an OK book but just not
my type. The Aarons book had a halfway decent style to it.
Like Bill Crider noted, he is great at describing the
setting, and I enjoyed that part of it, but the plot seemed
haphazard and sloppy. It felt like he started writing the
book without knowing what was going to happen. That strategy
might work for some books, but most hardboiled has got a
well-woven plot and if it doesn't, it had better have
something else commendable. Aarons's skill with the setting
wasn't enough to make up for an unconvincing and ineffective
story line.
I've kinda been in a slump for the last few books. The last
really decent thing I read was Benedict's DOGS OF GOD, and I
had already read it before. Whoops! Shouldn't say that.
Thornburg's CUTTER AND BONE was great.
I'm tempted to give up experimenting for a while and go back
to tried and true. Cormac McCarthy's SUTTREE, Gores's
INTERFACES and COME MORNING, and Faulkner's LIGHT IN AUGUST
have sat unread on the shelf for a long time. Others, too.
I've read Raymond's HE DIED WITH HIS EYES OPEN, but I've got
I WAS DORA SUAREZ waiting on me. Woodrell's GIVE US A KISS
was great but TOMATO RED is tempting me. Same with Charles
Williams's SCORPION REEF and Willeford's DIFFERENCE and WOMAN
CHASER.
I started Nicolas Freeling's BUGLES BLOWING but I'm having a
hard time deciding if it's a novel or a long essay on the
French legal system. Just a few pages into THE LAST TANGO OF
DELORES DELGADO. Not too bad but a poor job of capturing the
essence of Delores before she danced her last tango. Even
started I.A. Richards's abridgement of THE ILIAD. Is that
hardboiled?
miker
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