Have you read FAST ONE? Pretty extraordinary book --
something like THE GLASS KEY stylistically, but taken to the
nth degree. Actually one of my favorite hb books from this
period.
Is SEVEN SLAYERS in print? I've been trying to hunt that one
down for a long time.
doug
Currently rereading Crumley's BORDERSNAKES. I think it's
clear that as time has gone on Crumley's plotting has become
more and more of an afterthought. Both MEXICAN TREE DUCK and
BORDERSNAKES are road novels, though, and a loose plot
structure more or less fits there. BORDERSNAKES revisits some
of the same themes as MEXICAN TREE DUCK, has the very bright
idea to put Milo and Shugrue in the same book (among other
things, the switching back and forth in pov gives the book
some much needed narrative tension), and has Crumley's usual
knockout sense of place.
Recommended. When Crumley's on he's more or less my ideal of
what a hb writer shoud be -- the opening fight scene in
BORDERSNAKES is a classic.
--- Paul Farrell <
pm_farrell@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I recently read Paul Cain's SEVEN SLAYERS,
the
> collection of seven of Cain's
> 1930s Black Mask stories. Maybe it's because of
my
> high expectations before
> reading it, due to Cain's huge
hard-boiled
> reputation, but I found myself
> disappointed with many of the stories.
While
> certainly readable, the
> writing style makes them feel unmemorable.
The
> stories are made up
> predominantly of dialogue and descriptions
of
> characters' actions. The
> dialogue is admirably terse, but is also rather
flat
> and functional. The
> shortcomings of the style become
particularly
> apparent in the stories with
> many characters ('Pineapple', 'Murder in
Blue'),
> where you realise that
> there is little characterisation to
differentiate
> them. The best story,
> IMO, was 'Pigeon Blood'. In this one, it felt
like
> Cain was allowing his
> style to ease out a bit; there's more description
of
> the settings, and the
> characterisation is much sharper.
>
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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