John Shannon wrote:
> Yes, you can pick the very sentence where Chandler
stops and Parker
> starts.
> Too bad. Fifty writers (or so) could have done a
creditable job
> completing
> Poodle Springs.
And probably would have been as routinely slammed for it as
well. A short story is one thing, but completing an
unfinished novel by someone so beloved and with such a
distinctive voice?
I doubt anyone could have escaped unscathed, and particularly
Parker, who was already going through a bit of a backlash as
evidenced by the
(possibly green-tinged) potshots that had started to pop up
in books by other P.I. writers by that time.
But at the time, Parker was probably the right man for the
job, given his widespread popularity, the obvious Chandler
influence, and because POODLE SPRINGS dealt with something
nobody had seen before: a married Marlowe. At the time,
Spenser was about the only private eye around involved in
anything like a permanent relationship, so the choice of
Parker was probably a no-brainer.
Not there are a lot of P.I.s with significant others even
now. Though your character, Jack Liffey, is a serial
monogamist, involved in a series of messy but mostly
monogamous relationships.
Though, come to think of it, you trotted out Marlowe yourself
in one of the Liffey books, didn't you? An older, crankier
Marlowe, living up in the hills, bitching about -- who else?
-- Chandler.
I loved it.
But hey, I also liked POODLE SPRINGS. Neither your Marlowe
nor Parker's (or Altman's, for that matter) was Chandler's,
but they were all still recognizable on some level; they were
more like good covers of a favourite song.
I think, in cases like this, I prefer personal, honest
interpretations to hollow, slavish imitations. They seem more
honest, somehow.
It will be interesting to see how people treat Joe Gores when
he refries Hammett's beans. Gores has never been as
successful or as prolific as Parker, so maybe he'll be cut
some slack.
Kevin Burton Smith www.thrillingdetective.com
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