The first thriller I remember reading as a
child was “The Falcon’s Malteaser” by Anthony Horowitz. Looking back, it’s
amazing how many of the gripes of the genre were in it, yet it could be enjoyed
as a 10 year old.
One another classic thriller writer, not many
people about, probably because he is too pulpy, is Sax Rohmer with the Fu
Manchu books. Fast paced, sometimes brutal, often funny, you can see their
impact in wider culture even now. They may not be the highest of brow books,
but I do love them. On the other hand, I can’t wait for the new James Ellroy as
the second LA quartet continues. Loved all his previous books, and the
continuation of the stories of his characters across them make them books I
regularly return to.
When I’m in a bad mood I like to facetiously
imply that no literary fiction has a plot. Bizarre comment you might think,
right? I’m sure some of you would agree with me though, some of it is tedious
drivel and some of it isn’t ... all in the writing isn’t it whatever the genre,
right? Tons of lit fic is plot driven and it’s good or bad; tons isn’t and it’s
good or bad, crime fiction is obviously very plot driven, and it’s also either
done well or badly. It can be very formulaic. I prefer crime fiction that has
political stuff happening or at the other end of the spectrum, grimy stuff. Not
really a fan of reoccurring detectives stumbling across the crime of the
century multiple times; I find it cheesy and the knowledge that they are in no
real jeopardy annoys me. For me it’s all about that sweet spot though. A good
example is Phillip Meyer’s “American Rust” and “The Son”. Absolutely literary
fiction that involves criminal activity and a good deal of violence. Of plot,
prose and character, plot is the most fun but the least interesting. Some
literary fiction has no plot at all, yet remains a page-turner. Anthony
Powell's “A Dance to the Music of Time” sequence springs to mind.
Most people I know who like Crime Fiction are people
who inherently do not like folks who do bad to get away with it, back then;
they could not care if the evil gets away with it or not, as long as it is
twisted people doing twisted stuff, so degenerate are the times.
I do like a good crime story but most modern
Crime novels are about murder, usually serial killers and often sexual assault/rape.
Are there any well-crafted detective novels about car theft, robbery or dog
fouling? Ok, that last one maybe a stretch too far but we do seem obsessed with
murder.
Populism is never good for self-esteem in
serious art. E. L. James? Dan Brown? The Art of the Deal? And yes, I will resist
the temptation to shoehorn in Rump and Rexit; let's keep that Anglo Saxon shame
out of it. It’s true that crime thrillers can’t get away with sloppiness. Michael
Connelly does not really write Literary Crime Fiction, but he would if he set
his mind to it. The sense I got from the “Sacred Dark Night” is that Connelly
thought a long time ago: “This thriller writing lark is easy - I’m a great
writer, let’s cash in”. So forget about one vast, glaring (to me) plot hole was
left in (because the whole thing collapses if it’s not there) [again,
spoilers]. It would have been the instinctive and obvious thing for an ordinary
middle class person to do. Connelly even tries to paper over it later, having one
of his character vaguely muse about how stupid it was. This is just lazy
writing. “Literary” novels can get away with a lot if the language is
impressive enough. Crime novels are hard. If I was a crime fiction writer I'd
want the fact that I could write Literary Crime Fiction hushed up. I wouldn’t
want anyone to know I could turn into another John Banville…
I gave
up with "literary fiction" chiefly because most "literary
novelists" write tedious drivel that gets extravagantly overpraised in the
press, being reviewed by their backscratching mates inside the tiny cosy London, NYC, Lisbon or Paris literary scene. A mystery novel can still work if the writing
is bad as long as the mystery works. Obviously good writing is better but it's
optional. If the mystery is nonsense then no manner of finely tuned phrases are
going to cover it up.
Crime can be just as much 'literary' fiction as
anything else. Granted that much is little different from watching the telly
but people get high falutin about tv series these days and I'd simply rather read
than watch, mainly. And it's rarely up its own arse or boring... and
even stuff that's not brilliant can be enjoyable, like 'Girl on a Train', which
is more than can be said for much of the 'over-wrought' stuff that gets so
lauded as literature..
Bottom-line: At the end of the day, does anyone care what
any of us think? We are but naked apes hooting into the void, an evolutionary
accident on a dying planet orbiting a dying sun. Nothing of us will remain, not
even - despite Larkin's assertions - love. (I'm not naked I've got my
underpants on in case you're wondering....)
