Thursday, September 25, 2014

LeCarre, Lehane, and Leonard: a trio to reckon with.

I was noticing as I was filing that these three thriller writers are bunched together.

Three very good writers, but...

I don't much care for Lehane's later books, starting with Mystic River.  I despised Mystic River.  Just hated it.  Not because it wasn't well done, but because the message seemed to be "everything is hopeless."

I enjoyed his earlier books, but it was as if Lehane decided he had to be "Serious" with a capital "S" and the way to do that was to say, "You can't change your fate.  Despair!"  I fucking hate that message.

Similarly, LeCarre's later books have a nasty habit of the bad guys winning, which is bad enough, but he also basically humiliates the good guys.  Again the message seems to be "everything is hopeless" but the difference is, I think LeCarre means it, and Lehane is a poseur, who wants to be taken seriously.  Ugh.

Elmore Leonard?

He's just great.. 

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