I totally agree with Doug. DANCING BEAR is the weakest novel
produced by Crumley with a too conventional plot and ending
(under others). But as Doug mentioned it, a weak Crumley
novel is often miles above some recent lauded works by
others. IMHO, THE MEXICAN TREE DUCK was often misunderstood
by critics and readers, thinking more of it as a comics-like
plot and drug-crazy characters than anything else. It's more
about disillusion and real meaning of life, packed in a
gripping road novel, than anything else. A great book.
Some years ago I wrote a detailed review of THE MEXICAN TREE
DUCK; if you are interested, you will find it in HARD-BOILED
MYSTERIES at: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384/books.html
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
Doug Bassett :
>I'm currently rereading Crumley's THE MEXICAN
TREE
>DUCK, which is as good as I remember it (and
IMO
>rather underrated). Before that was his DANCING
BEAR,
>which I liked but seemed to blur out, here and
there.
>I generally prefer the C.W. Shugrue books to the
Milo
>Milodragovitch books, I think: I suspect
Crumley
>overidentifies with Milo, which tends to lead
him
>toward some self-indulgence. Much of DANCING BEAR
is
>really an essay about Montana more than an
actual
>novel.
>
>Not saying it's bad, though. Even secondary Crumley
is
>better than 90% of everything else out
there.
>
>doug
>--- "
>
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~-->
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Aug 2004 EDT