RARA-AVIS: Re: Name Your Poison

From: Kevin Burton Smith ( kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 01 Sep 2006


I said

> And all the lame bleating about "But it happened in real life" doesn't
> impress me. To satisfy, fiction >has to make some sort of sense;
> real life
> doesn't. Citing "real life" to justify literary weaknesses and
> implausibilities just doesn't cut it -- it's often the last straw of
> writers who don't know how to craft >believable characters.

And Chris wrote:

> The comment above gets at what often frustrates me when reading a
> book with
> a premise or characters that I just can't buy. But...
>
> When you take it a bit beyond the characters being true to
> themselves and
> into discussing the action of the book itself, which makes me
> wonder you or
> others think of so many of Bruen's books. The Taylor books sure, but
> especially the Brant series are often, if not resolved, then ended
> with
> events ranging from the completely random to the viscously absurd.
>
> And I love that about them. You pay attention not to round up a
> series of
> clues, but because anything might happen.

Yet, within the world Bruen created, those events do make a twisted kind of sense. And his characters do remain true to themselves, even if they occasionally do stupid things. Like I said, a good writer
(like Bruen) can make you believe almost anything.

A bad writer makes you doubt almost everything they tell you.

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