If you've not read Crais before, I don't recommend beginning with this book.
Couldn't agree with you more, Corey, on this recommendation. Recently, I got a nurse friend of mine, hooked on RC. And she thanked me that I had her start at the beginning of the EC series.
I found CD to be a very Chandleresque take on an Elvis Cole story-line. Thoughts?
Yes, I agree, in some aspects CD is very Chandleresque. I remember just as I was finishing the book thinking that CD was almost old-fashioned (and I mean that in a good sense: good quality, traditional PI plot) in that the detective work was very real, very dogged. If Marlowe was on the case rather than Elvis, I think he would have trod the same steps, asked the same questions Elvis did.
Also, in some places (but not so often that Crais could be accused of cheap imitation) Crais wrote in that darkly lyrical tone that colored so much of Chandler's work. Right at the beginning, when he describes the fires: "...sick desert wind carried the promise of Hell." And not hell, Hell. Just adding the cap adds impact. Is Crais smart or what?
Crais is, I think, more subtle than Chandler; in fact sometimes he's so subtle I think some of his themes and characterizations escape folks who read just for Elvis's humor and Joe's, um, skills. I particularly thinks that's true of The Watchman.
In CD, the scene where Elvis first goes to Alan Levy's house and finds no one there, I thought the writing was amazing. Everything is described as so neat, so orderly, nothing out of place, And out of that Crais created what was, to me, an absolute nightmare. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The subtlety is that he leaves it to the reader, not to Elvis, to imagine what happened to the pretty wife and child. But that Elvis RUNS from the house said so much, it echoed my horror. I don't think Chandler's handling of that same scene would have been nearly as subtle, I think Marlowe would have told us his conclusions and been a little detached in so doing.
How about you? In what ways did you find CD Chandleresque?
ReplyDeleteIf you've not read Crais before, I don't recommend beginning with this book.
Couldn't agree with you more, Corey, on this recommendation. Recently, I got a nurse friend of mine, hooked on RC. And she thanked me that I had her start at the beginning of the EC series.
I found CD to be a very Chandleresque take on an Elvis Cole story-line. Thoughts?
Yes, I agree, in some aspects CD is very Chandleresque. I remember just as I was finishing the book thinking that CD was almost old-fashioned (and I mean that in a good sense: good quality, traditional PI plot) in that the detective work was very real, very dogged. If Marlowe was on the case rather than Elvis, I think he would have trod the same steps, asked the same questions Elvis did.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in some places (but not so often that Crais could be accused of cheap imitation) Crais wrote in that darkly lyrical tone that colored so much of Chandler's work. Right at the beginning, when he describes the fires: "...sick desert wind carried the promise of Hell." And not hell, Hell. Just adding the cap adds impact. Is Crais smart or what?
Crais is, I think, more subtle than Chandler; in fact sometimes he's so subtle I think some of his themes and characterizations escape folks who read just for Elvis's humor and Joe's, um, skills. I particularly thinks that's true of The Watchman.
In CD, the scene where Elvis first goes to Alan Levy's house and finds no one there, I thought the writing was amazing. Everything is described as so neat, so orderly, nothing out of place, And out of that Crais created what was, to me, an absolute nightmare. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The subtlety is that he leaves it to the reader, not to Elvis, to imagine what happened to the pretty wife and child. But that Elvis RUNS from the house said so much, it echoed my horror. I don't think Chandler's handling of that same scene would have been nearly as subtle, I think Marlowe would have told us his conclusions and been a little detached in so doing.
How about you? In what ways did you find CD Chandleresque?
My apologies for responding so late. I've answered your question here, Corey. Thanks for understanding.
ReplyDelete