Re: RARA-AVIS: OVER MY DEAD BODY, by Lee Server

From: William Denton ( wtd@pobox.com)
Date: 27 Sep 2006


On 24 September 2006, Michael Robison wrote:

> Geoffrey O'Brien, in his Hardboiled America, saw these racy paperbacks
> and their risque covers as an anachronism, disconnected with the present
> and frozen in the past, but Lee Server disagrees with this assessment,
> declaring that they have "lost none of their power."

Did O'Brien say that? Huh. HARDBOILED AMERICA was my introduction to hardboild and noir writing and though I don't go back to it often I have fond memories of it. It got me looking for Jim Thompson, which led me to early Black Lizard reprints, and then I was hooked.

I had a look at my copy of OVER MY DEAD BODY, and it's a fine book, but I think there's a case to be made for the reverse of the above quote. O'Brien talks about the books as writing, but Server concentrates on the cover. The illustrations are what attract most of the reader's attention. I think people would see them and think of them as museum pieces, because of the covers, and not consider the novels themselves. On the other hand, Server's writing about the paperback market from 1945-55 so the books are about different, though related, subjects.

Bill

-- 
William Denton : Toronto, Canada : www.miskatonic.org : www.frbr.org


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