E. Borgers wrote:
> Demouzon is quite good in some of his novels but
he's not of the same
> league as Manchette, and certainly not as innovative
in the French noir
> genre.
Quite true - but what you regard as weaknesses are right what
I consider to be his main virtues.
> I can understand that somebody is not liking
Manchette's work for
> personal reasons, but putting him aside because he
created a kind of
> vacuum in the French mystery scene is pure
fiction... or playing riddles.
I am not playing riddles, just telling a fact that you are of
course free to dismiss as "pure fiction". Manchette may not
have created "a kind of vacuum", but his works and theories
indeed helped to establish new standards for French crime
fiction that led to a relative yet significant
marginalization of formerly flourishing subgenres like
suspense or whodunit. Noir had always been a major force in
the French mystery scene, but Manchette and the NeoPolar gang
made it the dominant one.
> Some French authors tried to mimic Manchette, but
without any genius nor
> real success. Manchette's influence was more in the
way to approach the
> genesis of a novel, and its purpose, as a writer.
And also to pay
> more attention to style and construction of a
mystery novel. In that
> sense he was influential. Also in the way to treat
subjects that were
> connected to the French reality of the 70s and 80s
(but here he was not
> the only promoter of this kind of views).
The latter point is the most controversial to me. One of the
reasons why I read so little *modern* French mysteries is
that I'm tired of being told about poverty, suburbs,
globalization, racism, fascism and the ilk when I'm only
looking for a good story with good characters. Manchette is
at least partly responsible for that "social awakening" of
French crime fiction. As to his influence on formal grounds,
it is undeniable but led authors to take themselves for
artists and break with conventions and popular roots of the
genre.
> Be assured that beside the noir/HB branch of
mysteries in France there
> are still many writers handling the other subgenres
of the mystery
> novel, from cozies to thrillers, historical
mysteries, gorish... just
> name them. The problem is that top quality is not
always found in the
> works of these writers, even if the average quality
is higher since the
> last 20 years.
The problem is, above all, that Noir/Hardboiled is largely
dominant in the French mystery scene. Fanzines, critics,
websites and awards focuse more or less exclusively on that
genre. Same goes for publishers - even cozy bastion Le Masque
changes its way and open its doors to Boston Teran or Val
McDermid - and mainstream press and media: I still fondly
remember a special issue of Magazine Litt鲡ire allegedly
devoted to mystery fiction that still managed to be mostly,
if not only, about noir. So maybe the "many" non-noir French
mystery writers are not always top-notch, but they have great
merit for not giving up while living in a milieu that at best
ignores them.
> And in the modern French noir/HB itself there is
enough diversity as
> well, with voices so different that it is difficult
to link them one to
> another (humor, derision, surrealism, procedural,
small thugs saga,
> social realism, political pamphlet ... the list is
long).
Yes, but as Billy Joel would say, "it's still noir/hardboiled
to me"...
> The recent biggest French mysteries sales in France
are from French
> authors having nothing in common with Manchette and
mostly outside the
> noir/HB genre. So ...
So what? Sales prove nothing. The biggest mystery writer in
terms of sales in France is Mary Higgins Clark. Her French
competitors, Jean-Christophe Grang頡nd Fred Vargas, indeed are
not in the Manchette tradition but nevertheless are not
representative. Vargas for some reason enjoys both commercial
and critical success, but Grang頩s not well-ranked in the
fandom.
> Back to Demouzon, a prolific writer when compared to
Manchette, the
> novel I liked the best was: DERNIERE STATION AVANT
JERUSALEM (1994) (=
> Last stop before Jerusalem); problem with him is
that he touched many
> different genres of the noir/HB field in well
written novels but without
> real innovation.
Once again, you dismiss as weaknesses things I regard as
virtues.
> To be noted that he also wrote novels for the
mainstream general
literature.
Alike a lot recent French crime writers: Georges-Jean Arnaud,
Paul Couturiau, Tonino Benacquista, Michel Quint...
Xavier Lechard
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