I agree with Ron's assessment of Angry Moon and The Things They Carried, but have not read any Vachss. I was not expecting the horror element to Angry Moon when I picked it up blindly and was taken back a bit, but I enjoyed it overall.
I consider both Manchette books that have been translated to English to be among the best and most most memorable books I've read. I'm eagerly waiting for the translated publication of Fatale later this year.
best,
Chris
--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Ron Clinton" <clinton65@...> wrote:
>
> ANGRY MOON and THE GETAWAY MAN are both terrific reads...the first is more
> of horror/noir hybrid, while the latter is distinctly noir. I'm no longer
> much of a Vachss fan, but still recommend without hesitation THE GETAWAY MAN
> and SHELLA (and his short-story collections are pretty good).
>
> The O'Brien book is nearly worthy of all the acclaim its received since its
> release...some of the lines, like "...and when he died it was almost
> beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked
> him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms" when
> describing a soldier killed by a landmine. Other scenes are just as
> evocative and powerful.
>
> Those would be the three I'd recommend reading first.
>
> Ron C.
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com [mailto:rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com] On
> > Behalf Of sonny
> > Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 9:18 AM
> > To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: RARA-AVIS: embarrassment of riches
> >
> > after waiting for library requests to come in for quite a while, a whole
> bunch came in
> > at once.
> >
> > i read 'one' by david karp and 'shooters' by terrill lankford, liked both.
> >
> > i have the following out now:
> >
> > 'angry moon' by lankford which i'm reading and like
> > 'the resurrectionist' by jack o'connell which i started and like. i
> switched to angry
> > moon when it came in cos it's an interlibrary loan and can't be renewed,
> unlike the
> > others.
> > i've yet to start 'the prone gunman' by j.p. manchette and 'the getaway
> man' by a.
> > vachss
> >
> > and the library tells me 2 more are in now, 'to die in california' by
> thornburgh and
> > 'things they carried' by tim o'brien.
> >
> > any comments on what should be read first, not counting the interlibrary
> priority i
> > mentioned.
> >
> > i had taken out 'tree of smoke' by denis johnson while waiting for the
> above and
> > started it and tho i liked it, between the slowness and length of it and
> all the above
> > coming in, i returned it. may or may not ever return to it. i liked his
> 'nobody moves'
> > but there's just too much to read.
> >
> > happy passover, easter, final four, weekend, spring and reading,
> > s
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03 Apr 2010 EDT