From: "Steve Novak" <
Cinefrog@comcast.net>
> I guess I have to express my surprise and sorrow at
the fact that
*generally* speaking (...and that is always dangerous...)
Vachss's criticism both in the US press and on various US
discussion groups (including and especially Rara) has been
quite negative
------------------- I enjoyed the first four Burke novels,
then my interest progressively waned until after the first
half-dozen, I ceased to find his characters engaging nor
appealing and stopped reading the series. Several comments
have been made about the familiar redundancies in his
writing, and perhaps that's the trait that doomed them for
me: redundancies from book to book in character, motivation,
plotting, etc.
Perhaps that also why his standalones come off as so
conversely entertaining: SHELLA, THE GETAWAY MAN, his two
short-story collections...I'd recommend these without
hesitation because there's an energy, a power, a freshness
that, for me, is lacking in the later Burke novels. Having
said that, I tried reading his latest novel -- also a
standalone -- entitled TWO TRAINS RUNNING, and didn't get
very far before I gave up. Not quite sure why that one didn't
work and haven't had enough time to consider it, so won't
comment, other than to say redundancies may not be the only
problem(s) creeping into his writing of late.
On a side note, his signing decorum/attitude could also use
some work..but that's another story.
Ron C.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 10 Jan 2006 EST