Well, Mike, you have a point about the contempt. I was
thinking of the wrong client, the one in The Chill. I was
confused because in both books, Archer spends time trying to
persuade prospective customers that they don't really need
him. And in both cases, he doesn't seem to have much respect
for either of them initially. (And I didn't refer to the
books when composing my post.)
In The Chill, young newlywed Alex Kincaid wants Archer to
look for his wife, Dolly, who has run off the day after their
wedding. Kincaid refuses to believe that she doesn't love
him. As I said, he eventually starts to admire the young
man's devotion to his wife.
In Black Money, young Peter Jamieson has lost his girlfriend
Ginny Fablon to a shady character named Francis Martel, who
claims to be a Frenchman. He wants Archer to dig up the facts
on Martel in the hopes of convincing Ginny to at least leave
Martel, if not to go back to him (Peter).
I think that Archer's harsh comments about Peter Jamieson are
part of his no-nonsense approach to most things. Archer is
exasperated by the way Peter is wallowing in his grief,
eating his sorrow instead of drowning it (can't find the
quote). He advises him to skip dessert and go running on the
beach (which Peter does, at least once). Later Archer tells
him that he has a problem (bulimia) and should seek help for
it. "You should take it up with a doctor. It's a disease. ...
You have a hungry heart. You need something to feed it with
besides food."
Here are a couple of nice similes, referring to the turkey
Peter has been stuffing into his mouth "the way you pack meat
into a grinder": "the half-demolished bird ... lay in front
of him like the carcass of his hopes."
Karin
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 06 Jan 2005 EST