those who (like me) think that some of his early Spenser novels were his best, the following selection from this back-and-forth might be the most surprising:Most: You have talked about the influence of Raymond Chandler on your writing. Do you think your writing has improved through the years?Parker comes off in this article as rather unthoughtful, unwilling to engage in philosophical debate over the state of crime fiction. During my single one-on-one conversation with him, many years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I didn’t find him at all that way. Maybe Parker has simply given too many interviews since then to share more than simplistic responses anymore.
Parker: Yeah. I think recent books are better than earlier ones. Not everyone agrees; they like the noir of the earlier ones. Subsidiary characters have become richer and more interesting. Spenser is less compelled to be a wise guy and less compelled to punch somebody’s lights out.
In any event, you will find today’s whole Globe piece here.
2 comments:
I think Parker has tired of interviews as you suspect. Like you, I prefer his earlier books, but I'm not surprised he says he prefers the later ones. It strikes me as good promotion: If he said he preferred his earlier work, new readers might not buy his current work.
I want to write a Hawk novel.
Seriously.
I'd love to take a shot at putting Hawk in the spotlight like Avery did in the series.
I tried to read three Spenser novels, one of them about horse track murder.
In all three books, Spenser was busy for half the books, pining for his girl.
That's when I stopped reading him.
Can you say, CRUISE CONTROL writing.
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