Pulp Fiction discussion

Tom wrote: "Thanks Allen. You asked the question for me.
Nancy, I know we have similar tastes but I didn't know you went in for Southern Lit."

I go in for writers who write well enough to think about a book long after l've finished it, Southern or whatever.

Well, but Crews is kind of a special case, isn't he? He is Southern, but only in the way that Nathaniel West was a "California writer." Steinbeck, Chandler, Didion, were Cal. writers in their own way, but I think of West as singular, just as I think of Crews as singular, above and beyond, say, Faulkner or Eudora Welty or even Flannery O'Connor, who could be quite scary at times. West's and Crews's passions and extremity of plot and situation kept them out of a secure place in the mainstream, at least when they were actively writing.

Could it also be that Crews has no particular use for organized religion, making him, like West, more of an existential Modern? I can tell you that one of my teachers in college knew Crews well and thought of him as a bit of a lost spirit, one with great gifts who was distracted by the pull of Sixties/Seventies absurdism and avant-garde. Didn't Crews write a novel about a man who ate an entire car? Not a Hot Wheels, an entire Detroit automobile?

My guess is that, in the future, Crews will seem much less the outlier than he was thought to be over the last forty years, and his characters possibly the -- for lack of a better term -- modern redneck wing of dissolute Southern characters, a kind of Flem Snopes who is messed up not with racist pride, class resentment and chicanery than with illicit substances, class resentment and (as can be seen in his autobiography A Childhood: The Biography of a Place) a really wretched upbringing.

I sometimes wonder if Crews and Dorothy Allison ever met and if so, what they thought of each other.

And indeed, Crews' whacked-out consumer satire (which is usually how it's classed nowadays) was Car, originally published in 1972.

Here's a brief article about Crews and his badass quality:
https://litreactor.com/columns/what-t...

I wouldn't know. I've only read his autobiography and Feast of Snakes, so I'd have to read more to make any sort of judgment about Harry Crews.

. . . one more remark and then I'll shut up. Crews has been called a forerunner of Chuck Palaniuk! I do see the connection in the mixture of the personal and political. (FWIW Palaniuk was born in Washington State.)

ALLEN wrote: "Well, but Crews is kind of a special case, isn't he? He is Southern, but only in the way that Nathaniel West was a "California writer." Steinbeck, Chandler, Didion, were Cal. writers in their own w..."

I don't think Crews is absurdist.It's true "guilt is magic" (James Dickey) , the epigraph for Scar Lover, is a puzzle. But at the end guilt is replaced by a kind of pagan magic. The epigraph for Feast of Snakes, Eberhart's "If I could only live at the pitch that is near magic", with its "infinite possibility," is part of the novel's (or its hero's) insistence on painful confrontation which isolates one and also tests the pros and cons of radical individualism. Joe Lon is an intensely serious person, full of the "rough edges" Crews set as a criteria for awareness.

As far as Feast of Snakes is concerned, my take is that is hovers on the fringe of absurdism (meaning there are absurdist elements incorporated into the narrative), but it really falls more into line with a sort of theatre of the grotesque, where (view spoiler)[ Joe Lon knows early on he's doomed, and we just sit and watch as his torment builds and that doom is played out. (hide spoiler)]

If you haven't read the novel, don't read the spoiler.

Still not reading as much as I usually do, but I do have a fun post for you guys. Our train stations have steel cabinets for book swapping these days. You can drop them, you can pick em up. That's where I found this Men's Adventure Magazines

It looks really awesome. Anybody care to comment/elaborate any further on what this is all about? I already figured it is n't really pulp noir covers, but it is definitely pulp. Very beautiful.

I am eventually prepared to trade to someone who needs this more than me, pm me and I'll think about it. Not sure yet though, first I'm gonna read it all.

You should definitely see _All Man! Hemingway, 1950s Men's Magazines, and the Masculine Persona_ by David M Earle.

Jay wrote: "You should definitely see _All Man! Hemingway, 1950s Men's Magazines, and the Masculine Persona_ by David M Earle."

Coool! Do you happen to know if it is digitalized or is it only in real book form?

I don't know. It's a coffee-table sized book, but should be in most libraries, public and academic.

I just finished:


Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene

I finished:


The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Fiction, Mystery & Detective by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow

RJ wrote: "I just finished:


Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And ..."

My favourite Graham Greene book is The Quiet American

Mine is The Power and the Glory.

Paul wrote: "My favourite Graham Greene book is The Quiet American"

I haven't read that one yet but it's on my list.

I finished:


The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just finished The Hook
Review here; https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Since i've been struggling with "Ministry of Fear, I've begun Little Girl Lost.

I'm on a Hard Case Crime tear. Currently reading The Knife Slipped by Erle Stanley Gardner

Miss posting on facebook so I need to be more active here. Also on a Quarry tear but next I'm going to jump into some Ken Bruen and read the missing Jack Taylor books from my list

Yes, I am slowly working my way through the Hard Case crime books.

I finished:


The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

I finished:


The Best American Mystery Stories 2016 edited by Elizabeth George
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Missed some Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novels so now filling those miss gaps

Currently reading The Dramatist

I started reading:


The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

Hard Case Crime is just the most fantastic publisher. My favorite of theirs is Donald Westlake’s Memory, one of the best existential novels ever published.

I finished:


The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I finished:


The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished:


The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich

Patrick wrote: "Hard Case Crime is just the most fantastic publisher. My favorite of theirs is Donald Westlake’s Memory, one of the best existential novels ever published."

Memory is arguably, Westlake's best stand-alone novel, imo. The Ax and The Hook also very, very good.

I started reading:


His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle

I finished:


The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thrilling Cities by Ian Fleming is a nonfiction book of essays that he wrote about 13 cities around the world in 1959-60. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes the original James Bond books. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Jim wrote: "Thrilling Cities by Ian Fleming is a nonfiction book of essays that he wrote about 13 cities around the world in 1959-60. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes the..."

I second that recommendation. It's a great book if you want to get a peek into the places that inspired many of the James Bond books.

Michael wrote: "What pulp/crime novel are you currently reading or just finished"
Just finished Loneliest Girl in the World by Kenneth Fearing. Enjoyed it much, though almost none of the suspense of The Big Clock. An interesting "preview" perspective image of what we now recognize as the internet. A nice light diversion.

I finished:


His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

I have just started "Gun With Occasional Music", after a longish reading break, and it looks very promising.

Just started “A Drink Before the War” and I’m really liking it. It’s my first Dennis Lehane book so I wasn’t sure if I’d like it.

I finished:


House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

I just finished Gang Girl/Sex Bum by Robert Silverberg which he wrote as "Don Elliot". I'm posting the review because a LOT of big SF & mystery names come up in the introduction & afterword. Tough times & soft core porn was good money which both explain well. I tried to outline the main points in my 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Algernon wrote: "I have just started "Gun With Occasional Music", after a longish reading break, and it looks very promising."

That is absolutely awesome book! I posted a review on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tMSbz9TT7zM

I finished:


Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Axeman by Ray Celestin

I am loving the classics at the moment. Sam Spade kind of creeps me out. :-)

Algernon wrote: "I have just started "Gun With Occasional Music", after a longish reading break, and it looks very promising."

An excellent choice Al!

Rocco wrote: "Just started “A Drink Before the War” and I’m really liking it. It’s my first Dennis Lehane book so I wasn’t sure if I’d like it."

My least favourite Lehane book, but mostly because i'm not a fan of series. Shutter Island and Mystic River , are far better in my opinon, especially 'Shutter Island', which i think verges on genius and is a real mindf#@k. The movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley is also excellent.

Paul wrote: "Rocco wrote: "Just started “A Drink Before the War” and I’m really liking it. It’s my first Dennis Lehane book so I wasn’t sure if I’d like it."

My least favourite Lehane book, but mostly because ..."

I just finished the third book in the Kenzie & Gennaro series and I am really enjoying the series, but I will definitely be putting your recommendations of Mystic River and Shutter Island on my to read list.

I just started The Deep Blue Goodbye and so far I like the character Travis McGee and the style of the book.

Just finished reading Live and Let Die and The Damned Don't Die: A Novel .
This second in the James Bond series is something of a recent 'guilty pleasure' and i'm glad to see the books are more closely aligned to the recent Bond movies than those released in the 60-70's, which i thought were egregious.
Jim Nisbet is one of my favourite writers and i'm yet to read one of his i don't like. In 'The Damned Don't Die' Nisbet seems to be channeling Raymond Chandler, or perhaps more particularly Ross MacDonald's 'Lew Archer' private detective. As is usual in Nisbit's novels there's a twist in it's tail in this one.
Both books were very enjoyable in their own ways.

I started reading:


Beast in View by Margaret Millar

I finished:


The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished:

The Convict and Other Stories
and

Kentucky Straight: Stories.
Thanks to this group for introducing me to the latter.

Now starting:

Gone, Baby, Gone

I finished:


The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams