Runciter (e)k Dashiell Hammett(r)en Woman in the Dark liburuaren kritika egin du
Brief Sketch from Hammett
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I’ll state up front that I’m a Hammett fan - he may not get the critical attention and accolades heaped on Raymond Chandler (or even Ross MacDonald), but there’s something simple, honest and unadorned about his no-nonsense method of setting a scene and drawing characters. Free of the (implausibly) eloquent first-person voice used by other crime fiction writers, his stories have a sense of realism. Ain’t no Camus up in here, just simple people with base goals and little finesse.
Woman in the Dark is, despite its publication as a single volume, a short story originally published in three installments in Liberty magazine. It details the incidents surrounding the flight of a European “tramp” from her rich, caddish benefactor, and the roughneck ex-con she turns to for protection and hopeful escape from her unfortunate circumstances. In the book’s brief pages, she runs afoul of a batch of stock Hammett characters …
I’ll state up front that I’m a Hammett fan - he may not get the critical attention and accolades heaped on Raymond Chandler (or even Ross MacDonald), but there’s something simple, honest and unadorned about his no-nonsense method of setting a scene and drawing characters. Free of the (implausibly) eloquent first-person voice used by other crime fiction writers, his stories have a sense of realism. Ain’t no Camus up in here, just simple people with base goals and little finesse.
Woman in the Dark is, despite its publication as a single volume, a short story originally published in three installments in Liberty magazine. It details the incidents surrounding the flight of a European “tramp” from her rich, caddish benefactor, and the roughneck ex-con she turns to for protection and hopeful escape from her unfortunate circumstances. In the book’s brief pages, she runs afoul of a batch of stock Hammett characters (desperate grifters, crooked lawmen, self-deluded gun molls). Hard-boiled dialogue buzzes, alliances form and fissure. Circumstances hash themselves out in some approximation of a happy (or at least acceptable) ending.
I can’t give this book an unreserved recommendation, given its brevity, lack of incident, and (frankly) shallowness - especially after having just finished a reread of Red Harvest, one of Hammett’s masterpieces. But admirers of ol’ Dash will find it an enjoyable, fun-size recap of his strengths, preoccupations and literary style.