Re: RARA-AVIS: Review of new Elmore Leonard book

From: Mark Sullivan ( DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net)
Date: 17 Jan 2004


Big Bounce was literature? It's been quite some time since I've read it, but literature? I can't think of a single Leonard book that is literature, but many are damn fine crime novels.

Could this whole crime fiction that is literature label really tell us more about the person making the claim than about the book in question? Could it be that those making these claims feel insecure about enjoying genre fiction and feel a need to elevate any they do enjoy to give it legitimacy?

What the hell is wrong with something being a damn fine crime novel? I've enjoyed a lot of those a lot more than a lot of the capital-L Literature I've read (which is arguably a genre of its own).

Mark

ps -- Also, Travis McGee was right-wing? He was certainly conservative in his thoughts about the changes to Florida (and anti-business, at least in how business had changed his home) and could be a bit of a fuddy-duddy about people leading more "liberated" lifestyles than his own, but his own was far from conservative for its time.

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