tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post8354723738782789135..comments2024-03-27T22:39:08.396-04:00Comments on Sweet Freedom: FFB: LEW ARCHER; PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR by Ross Macdonald (Detective Book Club, after the Mysterious Press, 1977)Todd Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-89219091420051373332013-11-10T11:15:44.178-05:002013-11-10T11:15:44.178-05:00Thanks for this Todd - certainly has made me look ...Thanks for this Todd - certainly has made me look again at his shorter Archer fictions (fix-ups and non) as I have looked far less often at these over the decades. Hammett is probably the only one of them whose shorts are by some held to be superior to the novels but it's all good stuff and more or less canonical - thanks chum Sergio (Tipping My Fedora)http://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-24730126092514304382013-11-09T12:52:02.110-05:002013-11-09T12:52:02.110-05:00"Gone Girl" is the revised title of &quo..."Gone Girl" is the revised title of "The Imaginary Blonde", which I covered in my entry. I'm definitely going to tackle more of the short stories.Kelly Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01752857506190488860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-75332527839243579252013-11-09T01:18:27.999-05:002013-11-09T01:18:27.999-05:00Todd, thanks very much for mentioning my Ross Macd...Todd, thanks very much for mentioning my Ross Macdonald post. I enjoyed reading his short stories and look forward to reading some of the novels. I'm comfortable with both. I also read a few short stories every month. These I like to read in vintage magazines and anthologies.<br /><br />While I'm not quite familiar with Chandler's and Hammett's detectives, Lew Archer does seem more human than Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, not to mention Spillane's Mike Hammer, but on par with John Ball's Virgil Tibbs. In the stories I read Archer's humaneness reflects in his just being around people he is dealing with. There is no real outward show of sympathy. He takes things as they come (or happen) which appears to be a hallmark of the hardboiled detective. Prashant C. Trikannadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16079354501998741758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-92003873229015920972013-11-08T23:05:40.746-05:002013-11-08T23:05:40.746-05:00Thanks, Yvette...and back at you. I've never q...Thanks, Yvette...and back at you. I've never quite understood why anyone doesn't like short stories, but it's certainly common enough these years...your library should certainly have at least one of the Archer collections...<br /><br />George, I like his short stories as much as his novels, in part because the intricacy of some of the plots seems to me to have exhausted him in at least some of the longer works...and, really, private eye stories Are literature, after all...not divorced from the rest of the literary world, however much some writers might seem to think so...or write so...Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-87320217540080424622013-11-08T15:02:07.277-05:002013-11-08T15:02:07.277-05:00I think Ross Macdonald was a better novelist than ...I think Ross Macdonald was a better novelist than short story writer, but they're still worth reading. My main quibble with many of Ross Macdonald's works are the jarring interjections of literature into a private eye novel. In THE FAR SIDE OF THE DOLLAR a sudden conversation about KING LEAR suddenly appears in a dramatic conversation. It happens in other Lew Archer books, too.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04546161337366365635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-34747682058398893012013-11-08T13:42:24.892-05:002013-11-08T13:42:24.892-05:00I've never read any of the Lew Archer shorties...I've never read any of the Lew Archer shorties, Todd. Never realized he had a bunch out there waiting for me. I'm not a short story reader normally, but I don't seem to mind the mystery ones. I'm going to check the library and see if they have any - they had a nice selection of the novels so they might.<br />Enjoyed your post, kiddo. Been missing the weekly movies list. Though I've tried to keep up with postings. (Minus this past week.)<br />Hope all is well.Yvettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08919246184376538331noreply@blogger.com