Red harvest
Just finished Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest. Strange literary specimen. Hugely, rightly influential – film-and-TV debtors alone include Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, Miller’s Crossing, Twin Peaks, Deadwood, etc., etc. (Recently read entertaining Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette; same sort of thing.)
And yet: Not all that good.
Influential due to setup. Isolated locale ravaged by corrupt, rich, warring factions (even “good” factions basically bad). Outsider hero – or, readers might prefer, anti-hero – resolves to clean up locale. Cannily plays factions against each other until factions eliminated and locale rosier, i.e., redder (anti-capitalist undertone).
Book itself rather sloppy. Warring factions not clearly defined. Motives nowhere near subtle. Plot nowhere near tidy. Deeds and settings under-described: little physical sense of action or place. Language too cute.
And yet: Not all that good.
Influential due to setup. Isolated locale ravaged by corrupt, rich, warring factions (even “good” factions basically bad). Outsider hero – or, readers might prefer, anti-hero – resolves to clean up locale. Cannily plays factions against each other until factions eliminated and locale rosier, i.e., redder (anti-capitalist undertone).
Book itself rather sloppy. Warring factions not clearly defined. Motives nowhere near subtle. Plot nowhere near tidy. Deeds and settings under-described: little physical sense of action or place. Language too cute.