RE: RARA-AVIS: New Scott Phillips

From: Terrill Lankford ( lankford2000@earthlink.net)
Date: 29 Feb 2004


Bill,

I read COTTONWOOD in a number of incarnations, including the final version. They were all terrific. If you liked the previous books, you should love Cottonwood. It's pure Scott Phillips - which is to say, pure down and dirty fun. It doesn't matter what year Scott places his stories, the characters are always up to no good, and there is always dark humor at the heart of the mayhem. Scott's experimentations with language and plot continue to amaze me. And he has the power to crack you up and touch your heart in the same paragraph. I think Cottonwood is a masterpiece. I hope people don't stay away from it because of the historical label. And I think it manages to be both hard boiled and noir while juggling quite a few more balls in the air - although I must admit that I use those terms far more loosely than some on the list.

TL

P.S. - I too have enjoyed Jim Sallis' presence on the list this month. But just because Jim Sallis month has come to a close, does that mean Jim Sallis must leave us? Can't you stick around, Jim?

> [Original Message]
> From: William Denton < buff@pobox.com>
> To: RARA-AVIS < rara-avis@icomm.ca>
> Date: 2/29/04 6:13:40 PM
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: New Scott Phillips
>
> Scott Phillips wrote THE ICE HARVEST (2000) and THE WALKAWAY (2002), both
> of which are excellent and I highly recommend, especially the first one if
> you like old Gold Medal paperback originals. I was wondering today when
> his next book would be out, and it turns out it just got released this
> month: COTTONWOOD.
>
> PUBLISHERS WEEKLY's review of it begins, "Western epic, black comedy and
> soft porn are cleverly spliced in this genre-bending offering from
> Phillips, which relates the experiences of Bill Ogden, sometime farmer,
> sometime saloon-owner, sometime photographer in 1870s Kansas. Ogden, 27,
> is a self-taught Greek and Latin scholar and a sexual libertine capable of
> seducing almost any woman he encounters."
>
> Have any of you rare birds read it yet? It sounds like he didn't want to
> do a third HB/noir book--not that that'll stop me from reading it, of
> course.
>
> Bill
> --
> William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat
lector.

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