--- On Sun, 6/22/08, Douglas Hoffman <
azureus@harborside.com> wrote:
Chandler's novels need to be read in order. Otherwise, it
might be easy to miss the evolution of Marlowe's
character.
****************************************************** Still,
this is an academic pursuit. It really doesn't matter to
someone who just wants a good detective yarn whether they
miss the evolution of Marlow's character or not. The stories
themselves don't depend on each other of clarity. I think
Faulkner first made character evolution an important part of
the journey between his books but it's not important to read
Faulkner's books in any special order. Of more sequential
importance is Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet in which
each book tells the same events from a different perspective
and "the big picture" opens up as we understand more and more
about who the different characters really are. The most
obvious interdependent books are The Rings Trilogy by
Tolkien, and more recently sequence has become very important
to fans of Harry Potter. Both Tony Hillerman and Walter
Mosley have sequence to their mystery novels and I've tended
to read both authors as they publish. I don't think it's
really important
to read the books in order to enjoy the stories.
Whether Easy Rawlings is a new home owner with two children
or a janitor who's kids have left home are elements that give
the stories depth. Likewise with Hillerman, whether Jim Chee
is dating Janet Pete or Janet has left him to move to D.C.
are complications to Jim's life that add another dimension to
solving the crime. I do enjoy being "in" on the subplot and
feeling Jim's pangs of regret with him. But it's not
important to enjoying the book at hand that I have already
read the previous twelve books. You can jump in in the middle
and enjoy a great story.
Patrick King
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Jun 2008 EDT