I think you may be treating Parker a little unfairly. Nobody was ever going to be able to complete a Chandler novel successfully, and in particular that Chandler novel. The Chandler who began to write it was no longer the Chandler of 'The Big Sleep' or 'Farewell My Lovely', just as the Parker who tried to complete it no longer wrote like the guy in 'The Godwulf Manuscript' or 'Heaven Help the Child', but had gone on to find his own voice, totally unlike the Chandler tribute it had once been.
Perhaps if he had tried completing 'The Poodle Spring Story' earlier in his career, things might have worked out differently, or at least less unsatisfactorily.
I think that so much of Chandler's attraction lies in the actual writing and its distinctively formed style that it would have taken a mimic of even greater talent than the object of his mimicry to have had a chance of succeeding, and even then...
How much, if any, of this applies to completing a Westlake novel I don't know, as I have only read a couple of his Stark / Parker series and that was some considerable time ago now; but whoever attempts it I wish him luck, a fair wind, and even fairer critics.
Patrick
________________________________
From: "BaxDeal@aol.com" <BaxDeal@aol.com>
To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, 19 April, 2010 19:39:52
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Westlake's Memory
But so little of the book exists that it
would really be like writing a book from scratch (not unlike Parker's
POODLE SPRINGS, which had only a chapter or two as a starting point).
and we all know how that worked out. as it was my intro into Robert B. Parker, I never felt compelled to give his work another look
John Lau
"If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize."
Muhammad Ali
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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