Perhaps if I hadn't come to moderate my own Spenser and P.I. fiction lists, I could sit back and enjoy Parker. But having stretched my reading well beyond Parker in eight years, I can't give his work a pass. Not for the money I pay to read it (Since '97, the cost of Parker mass market paperbacks has risen from $4.99 to $7.99, not to mention the rip-off trade editions).
On the other hand, Dave still enjoys Parker, today posting praise for the new Spenser, COLD SERVICE:
"Parker's style is so effortless and smooth, laid back. It's fun to read. The way Spenser and Hawk banter, the way Parker knows just when to add a paragraph of description to give the conversation that breezey feel. It's something I want to be able to do. Everytime I read Parker it makes me want to write."
After reading Dave's full entry, which ends with, "Parker is still good at what he does," I commented:
I haven't read COLD SERVICE yet, but the 'effortless' label applied to anyone's writing is problematic for me. I try to make my work easy to read and grasp as you go, and in my case it takes a lot of effort. Rarely do I draft a sentence that remains intact all the way through to the published product.
Meanwhile Parker claims the books we read are little more than his first draft. He does have a way with words, but I find some stretches of his writing uneven: wordy at times, brusque at others, and not always fitting the mood he's trying to set.
If Parker does write effortlessly it's because he's had forty-someodd books to practice. He's lucky his editor allows him to do what he does. At this point, I doubt he can write a book that doesn't fall back on his familiar themes and cadence.
Following up, here's a portion of blogger Eric Berlin's recent interview with Parker (Link from Sarah Weinman):
Eric Berlin: Your stories are nearly effortless to read and some of the easiest fiction to take in and enjoy. Is that intentional? How much effort do you put into the language and the story and as it flows and moves along?
Robert B. Parker: Well, it’s all effortful and yet it’s all intuitive. I both know and don’t know what I’m doing. Well, I know a hell of a lot about what I do. I’ve been doing it for thirty-something years, I’ve written fifty-something books. I know exactly what I’m doing and I don’t have a clue about what I’m doing. It’s both, and I don’t know how to amplify that, but it’s both at the same time.
I want it to sound right. Even though I don’t write music, it seems to me more like writing music than anything else. It’s got to sound right in my head, you know? And if the language sounds right and the story sounds right and the people sound right… You know, you don’t have to be able to write music to know when it’s off-key.
There is almost no effort in the sense that I have no plan. If I had a rule of thumb it would be the most meaning with the fewest words. When in doubt, use a simple declarative sentence, which seems right to me. I’m certainly not the first guy to think of that.
2 comments:
And Gerald, as I just commented on my own blog:
"Gerald,
I definitely meant "effortless" as a compliment. The best writers, I think, make their writing seem effortless. But, they have to work at that feel. I'm sure--like you say--Parker has gotten better at it because of the 40 books he has had to pratice. However, he is such a good stylist that he makes it seem effortless, when in reality, he's worked at it for years."
Knowing that the effortless feel takes work, I wouldn't approach a writer and say, "Your style seems effortless." I know it's a compliment, but it's one of those that sounds almost like an insult: "You didn't even break a sweat," "It doesn't seem as if you put long hours in," etc. To me, these seem poor choices-of-words if the intent is to salute an author's accomplishment.
This is my own linguistic quibble. Though I have trouble using "effortless," I recognize its full compliment value when said by others.
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