"Because Murder is More Fun Away From Home"
Labels: Bouchercon 2010, conventions, Dashiell Hammett, images, what I did on my vacation
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 12:35 PM
This blog is a proud winner of the 2009 Spinetingler Award for special services to the industry and its blogkeeper a proud former guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's Here on Earth. In civilian life I'm a copy editor in Philadelphia. When not reading crime fiction, I like to read history. When doing neither, I like to travel. When doing none of the above, I like listening to music or playing it, the latter rarely and badly. Click here to find an independent bookstore near you.
7 Comments:
Very good photos. It's good to see you had such a good time at Bouchercon.
Thanks. I've had a good time after Bouchercon, too.
It was pure coincidence that my post-Bouchercon hotel turned out to be smack in the middle of Hammett country. Or maybe not. One of my fellow convention-goers recommended it to me.
Oh, and I'm not done yet. I head for the airport in a few minutes, and I hope to put up at lease one more good, meaty Bouchercon post. Some photos, too, if the last batch came out well.
Oh, how wonderful all these B. postings are! I find it particularly thrilling that Yrsa
Sigurdardóttir was there. I'd love to hear what she has to say about Iceland and crime fiction, and did she perhaps mention my current favorite writer, Arnaldur Indridason? :<)
Why don't I read Hammett? I should like these books, just like I feel I should like the film, The Maltese Falcon. But something keeps me from them.
Why don't you read Hammett? The law of averages, perhaps. Somebody has to not read him. Maybe his prose style or his stories are too bleak for your taste. Who knows?
I had read his stories and novels over the years, since long before I started reading crime fiction in a big way. But it's only in the last two months are so, as I've read the Continental Op stories, that I became convinced they are the greatest collection of crime writing ever.
I brought up Arnaldur's name in one of my questions to Yrsa during our panel. She gets around the conventions. I first met her at Bouchercon 2008 in Baltimore, she's been on panels I've moderated at the last two Bouchercons, and we were both at this year's Crimefest in England. I think she was at last year's as well.
Finally, thanks for the kind words. I may still have a Bouchercon post to make and a picture or two to post.
Great photos.
And what did Yrsa say in response to your questions about Arnaldur? Does she know him? Like his work?
Hammett is an acquired taste. I had seen "The Maltese Falcon," many times, then read the book this year, which was quite an example of sparse, tight writing--not an extra word or syllable.
Then I saw the film again and it was so much better.
But his writing style is not for everyone.
I should try the Continental Op stories.
I'm content reading Yrsa and Arnaldur all day, with some Sara Paretsky and assorted others thrown in, but stretching one's repetoire is good.
Thanks, Kathy.
The question during the panel was about the common motif in Arnaldur's novels and Yrsa's of the land opening up to reveal bodies that won't stay buried. It was as much a geological as a literary question. Yrsa has written about Iceland's geology on the Murder is Everywhere blog. I think she may also in the past have cited Arnaldur as a pioneer in Icelandic crime, though I can't be sure.
Calling Hammett an acquired taste implies that it's not easy to like his work on first reading. I'd say rather than one can appreciate his work on initial reading, and appreciate it even more deeply later.
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