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ejrathke 's review for:
Red Harvest
by Dashiell Hammett
Fast, punchy, and violent. Lots of hard men doing bad things, and then there's the woman they all blame because, well, you just can't trust a dame, I guess.
It's really interesting reading these old novels. In some way they're pretty unpleasant and cruel, but in other ways they're incredibly tame. I suppose you could call it polite misogyny and racism, if you wanted to.
Setting aside that, though, this is a fast and pretty thrilling ride. For a novel so coated in violence, the violence is never really dwelt on or described beyond the way a very lazy mortician might describe it. Few gunshots here, few broken bones there--dead is what they are. That kind of thing, if you get me. There's no glamorizing or even really dealing with the violence the way a book written in the last forty years might.
And so in weird ways this violent and brutal novel is pretty tame, and wouldn't bother even a squeamish reader. I mean, if you're not put off by casual racism and misogyny.
But, yeah, Hammett--I like these books. Hardboiled detectives. Makes me want to write one.
It's really interesting reading these old novels. In some way they're pretty unpleasant and cruel, but in other ways they're incredibly tame. I suppose you could call it polite misogyny and racism, if you wanted to.
Setting aside that, though, this is a fast and pretty thrilling ride. For a novel so coated in violence, the violence is never really dwelt on or described beyond the way a very lazy mortician might describe it. Few gunshots here, few broken bones there--dead is what they are. That kind of thing, if you get me. There's no glamorizing or even really dealing with the violence the way a book written in the last forty years might.
And so in weird ways this violent and brutal novel is pretty tame, and wouldn't bother even a squeamish reader. I mean, if you're not put off by casual racism and misogyny.
But, yeah, Hammett--I like these books. Hardboiled detectives. Makes me want to write one.