I read James Hadley Chase's first novel year and a half ago
and didn't think it very crudely written, as Etienne (and
many others before him) have pointed out. I didn't think the
book was very good either, rather mediocre at best, but still
interesting in many points. It's bleak and nihilistic and
hence acquires a steady place in noir history. As for genre
literature, it's had more affect on other writers than
Faulkner's "Sanctuary" from which it borrows heavily.
I don't know.. Chase's kind of writers are hard to pin down.
They don't write good books, but still they have influence.
Julian Symons says that Chase's stature in France may be due
to translations.
But as for the Finnish translation... Better left unsaid. The
translator tried to the book make funnier and more
"hardboiled", while the dialogue is pretty snappy and simple.
It was laughably bad.
Juri
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 02 Jan 2005 EST