patrick king said--
*Lahane's first book, A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR, was god awful; absurd premise,
ridiculously violent, comic book deep characters, Bubba for example, and yet
it won at least one award. Had I read A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR first, I doubt
that, as a reader, I'd bother with Lehane.
*I think I read somewhere that Lehane himself called his early books the
work of a very young writer--and they are.
But i do want to defend Bubba--he's such an entertaining
character--exaggerated and perhaps not very realistic, but he fits in with
Lehane's continuing exploratiion of how growing up in a specific time &
place shapes character--and the different directions that each character
takes.
And your actual point, that writers deserve a chance to grow with each book
and most likely aren't getting the chance to do so in the present publishing
climate, is well-taken.
Zoe
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