RARA-AVIS: Re: Megan Abbott's retro-noir THE SONG IS YOU

From: briannthorntonn ( tieresias@worldnet.att.net)
Date: 18 Apr 2007


--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Ed Lynskey <e_lynskey@...> wrote:
>
> I finished reading Megan Abbott's THE SONG IS YOU. Fred Zackel
> in an earlier post cited the "voice". Yes, definitely. THE SONG
> IS YOU features Gil "Hop" Hopkins. Hop is a PR man operating in
> Hollywood's back lots. The storyline takes the vanishing of
> 1950s starlet Jean Spangler as its starting point and spins a
> seedy but intriguing tale, in large part driven by Hop's guilty
> conscience.
>
> THE SONG IS YOU, 100% classic noir, has nuance, atmosphere, and
> style. The raunchy, violent underbelly of the 1950s Hollywood
> still attracts writers and readers. This is something Ed Lacy
> or Woolrich might've written, and why it's great fun to read the
> old pulp noirs. The Black Dahlia gets mentioned several times.
> Mob figures also weave through the story.
>
> I'd don't think I would've gotten much work done in Hollywood.
> I'd be looking over my shoulder all the time.
>
> Ed

Ed-

See my extensive bit posted to the list on April 7th of this month and you'll see that we're in near complete agreement.

No less a worthy than our own Al Guthrie has commented that he has read her third one, QUEENPIN, and it's even better than these first two. I think he even mentioned that Megan Abbott was going to be "huge."

With an entry such as THE SONG IS YOU into the canon, she's well on her way.

All the Best-

Brian



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