| Author | Message | ||
     Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Can anyone tell me if Connolly's Charlie Parker books are all written in the first-person? Oh, and are they worth reading? I have the first one, and rather fancy reading the series... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.141.80 |
Can't answer the question about first person, but I read the first one recently, and really liked it. Bought it simply because, in an interview with Michael Marshall Smith, the interviewer likened Smith's Straw Men to Connolly's work. I intend to try the later ones - just been lent a copy of Connolly's collection of supernatural short stories too. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Is the first one written as the first-peron narrative, Mick? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
First PERSON, I mean...we really need a fucking edit button on here.  | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
'Is the first one written as the first-peron narrative, Mick?' Is that the voice of 'Don't Cry For Me, Argentina'? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
That's the Juan. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Oh, you guys...  | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.141.80 |
Is the first one written as the first-peron narrative, Mick? Don't think so, but my memory's rubbish nowadays, so I could be wrong. The book's out on loan at the moment so I can't check, unfortunately. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.104.178 |
IIRC the first one is entirely first person. For the rest of the series scenes where Parker is present are first person, scenes where he's not present are third person. And I told you over a year ago that the books are worth reading. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Ah, yes - you did! Cheers, Stu. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
What does IIRC mean? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
If I Recall Correctly. If I Recall Correctly. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.101.189 |
Oh, and BAD MEN (where Parker just has a quick cameo) and THE REAPERS (where Parker takes a back seat and two of the regular supporting characters step into the spotlight) are both in the third person. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I read the first 5 chapters of EVERY DEAD THING last night. It's very good so far - I already love Parker's character. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.225.222.198 |
>>Can anyone tell me if Connolly's Charlie Parker books are all written in the first-person? If I remember correctly, the later books are all first person in the same sense that James Lee Burke's wonderful Dave Robicheux novels are first person, in that there are third person passages told by an omnipotent first person narrator. For my money, John COnnolly's first two Parker books, EVERY DEAD THING and DARK HOLLOW are the best of the series. I very much enjoyed his collection NOCTURNES too. But do try James Lee Burke, Zed. I'm reading THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN right now, a crime novel laced with strands of the mystical in Burke's poetic passages, set during and after Hurricane Katrina in and around New Orleans. A book full of anger and outrage. Also try IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD before the movie comes out. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Will do, mate - I promise. I had to put the Connolly aside. It wasn't that the book was bad (far from it); I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.102.125 |
Burke's a HUGE influence on Connolly. But personally I find Burke's fiction a bit po-faced; Connolly has far more wit and charm. That said, I'm hoping to try ELECTRIC DEAD at some point and see if that alters my opinion. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.141.80 |
Just started DARK HOLLOW - I really enjoyed the first book and this is shaping up quite well. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
>>But personally I find Burke's fiction a bit po-faced He's a wonderful landscape writer, and his mystical passages in crime fiction are I think the best in the business. His ghosts are sublime in their ambiguity. He is a writer best listened to aloud, though, I think, to get the measure and pace of his books. I recommend, if you can get them, the audiobooks of CADILLAC JUKEBOX and SUNSET LIMITED. I've got a James Lee Burke T-shirt, you know. Thought you'd be jealous. He's also a big influence on Phil Rickman. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.199.248 |
Has anybody read Connolly's The Book of Lost Things? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I'm pretty sure Mark has...and I think he enjoyed it. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Ha. I enjoyed it so much I wrote my own version . . . Alas, just before Connolly published his. Spent a "happy" two years rewriting my book so that it wasn't the Book of Lost Things and had different paragaphs and phrases in it. How I laughed . . . Anyway, yes. It's well worth a read, is the BOOK OF LOST THINGS. It's actually full of mythagoes, though COnnolly never uses the term. You'll enjoy if you haven't read Holdstock's work, but won't enjoy as much if you have. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.107.26 |
>>I've got a James Lee Burke T-shirt, you know. Well, I've got a John Connolly T-shirt. I won it in a BFS raffle. So there. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I've got a Stuart Young T-shirt. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.220.3 |
There are some nightmarish scenes in The Book of Lost Things, even though it appears on the surface to be a YA book. I liked it. And I enjoyed Nocturnes. | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.22.3.104 |
I recently discovered that The New Daughter from Nocturnes has been adapted into a movie starring Kevin Costner: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0951335/ I actually didn't like that collection too much, most of the stories felt quite formulaic to me though there were a couple of good ones. I've been working through the Charlie Parker books and enjoying them immensely. Sounds like I should try James Lee Burker based on this thread as well. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 90.246.84.79 |
I've given Burke another go since my previous posts on this thread and actually really like his books now. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.40.254.125 |
A sign of maturity, Stu. ;-) | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
I've read Burke's "Texas City, 1947" and quite liked it, been meaning to go try more of his stuff. For me, the most impressive finds discovered through their shorter work (over the last year or so; finds that I've been meaning to following up on in more and/or longer pieces), from more-or-less contemporary crime/mystery/suspense writers, are these: Sharyn McCrumb, Jeffery Deaver, Scott Wolven, Chris Adrian, and Doug Allyn. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 94.197.127.106 |
I've tried Deaver a couple of times and not got very far. The books feel heavily preplanned, too rigid, and 'designed' to the point all soul has been expunged from them. Maybe you'll think differently, though. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
I'm going on the strength of but one short-story, "The Weekender," Mark—a brilliant thriller that also certainly qualifies as horror; and on the circumstantial evidence, given the fine choices and commentary, of the anthology he edited, A Century of Great Suspense Stories (2001). I wonder if I should stick to the shorter work, I know he has a collection of published short stories out there.... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.181.214.176 |
"John Connolly, John Connolly, the window to watch". I'll get me coat... | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 90.246.63.248 |
>>A sign of maturity, Stu. ;-) I dunno about that; shortly after getting into Burke's stories I started reading and enjoying Mickey Spillane. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.40.254.117 |
There's a 'new' Spillane book out at the moment, Stu. Finished by someone else. I've never read Spillane, actually. But I have recently got into Robert B Parker, a writer whose abilities had somehow passed me by before. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.40.254.174 |
Afraid I don't think much of Deaver's short fiction either, Craig. Same problem I had with his novels. I'm told he's a nice guy, though. And he had a go at writing a James Bond novel. So he must earn some points for that. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Well, Deaver's actually lower on that list of authors I mention above. I'd hit most of those others before Deaver.... But the name there whose work stood most in my mind, was Doug Allyn. His story "Candles in the Rain" (1992), an anodyne title if ever there was one, was nevertheless just flat-out impressively constructed and executed. It was nominated for an Edgar Award that year, but didn't win. Googling him, I realize he is indeed highly respected in the field, and has been nominated or won awards multiple times since... so he's the one if I had to pick out of that list, I'd most seek out (yeah, so why haven't I, right?!) | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.40.253.222 |
I know the name but haven't read anyting by him. Let us know if he's worth seeking out. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 90.246.137.49 |
>>There's a 'new' Spillane book out at the moment, Stu. Finished by someone else. It's probably Max Allan Collins who finished the Spillane novel. He and Spillane were mates and as far as I know no one else has been authorised to complete Spillane's unfinished novels. >>I've never read Spillane, actually. I've read the first five Mike Hammers and a handful of short stories. Spillane stories seem to be a curious mixture of good and bad, often in the same book, sometimes even in the same sentence. He can conjure up exciting action scenes and intense imagery but it's often interspersed with some really quite bland prose and dialogue. His attitude to women is quite weird as well; for example he's quite happy for Hammer's secretary Velda to be a tough, gun-toting PI but most of the times when she actually does something to help solve the case it'll happen off-page, whereas the bits where the reader actually gets to see her involved in the detective work usually revolve around Hammer rescuing her. >>I have recently got into Robert B Parker, a writer whose abilities had somehow passed me by before. Parker's great. I love his stuff, even if it is sometimes incredibly formulaic. Funnily enough Parker's most famous character Spenser is often viewed as a big step forward in PI fiction, not least for making the heroes more caring and in tune with modern sexual politics, whereas some people view him as simply Mike Hammer with a PC veneer. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 90.246.137.49 |
Here's a mini-review I did of Spillane's One Lonely Night, the fourth novel in the Mike Hammer series: Just finished One Lonely Night. Blimey, that was a fair bit nastier than the previous novels. *This* is the Mike Hammer that I'd heard about. The anti-Communist propaganda is about as subtle as an H-bomb, the plot is pretty forgettable, Pat Chambers still implausibly lets Hammer get away with murder (literally) and Hammer's fears that he may be turning into a psychotic nutjob are painted in strokes so broad I'm surprised they could fit on the page. On the plus side when things kick in they *really* kick in, with the lines between sex and violence blurring as things get more sadistic in both departments. Hammer talked about enjoying killing in the previous novels but this time round he not only takes real pleasure in it but gets more creative in his methods of execution. And his Madonna/whore complex goes into overdrive as he shags anything with a pulse despite refusing to sleep with his loyal secretary Velda until they get married (whenever that will be). The book somehow manages to be exciting, tedious, sexist, chivalrous, clever, stupid, off-putting and unputdownable all at the same time. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.40.253.104 |
Yeah, I'm impressed with Parker, Stu. Formulaic to be sure, but a formula I'm happy to keep returning to. I think nearly all US detective fiction is actually just a bunch of different writers jazzing over the same basic voice, generally the first-person wise guy persona.e It's the same character, from Marlowe, through Hammer, up to Charlie Parker and even to some extent Dexter Morgan. The difference is in the little flourishes each writer brings to the scene. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 90.246.137.49 |
Yeah, that's pretty much been my experience. unfortunately some of these flourishes devolve into gimmicks -- this PI's a woman, this one's black, this one's gay, this one's an alcoholic, this one's unlicenced, this one's a vampire, this one's a zombie. There's even a novel where the PI is a dinosaur. Obviously any of these ideas can be made interesting if handled right but some writers think the gimmick itself is enough and it really isn't. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 90.246.137.49 |
Going back to Spillane I forgot to mention that I also read the Mike Hammer comic strips, some of which were written by Spillane himself. Spillane was actually a comic book writer before creating Mike Hammer. In fact Hammer derived from a comic book character Spillane created called Mike Danger. http://davycrockettsalmanack.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/forgotten-books-mike-hammer- comic-strip.html | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.128.209.213 |
Actually there are 3 novels where the I is a dinosaur - Anonymous Rex, Casual Rex and Hot and Sweaty Rex - by the rather good Eric Garcia. You missed out the "This PI's a wizard" gimmick from your list. |