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Robert B. Parker Appreciation Thread

post #1 of 11
1/25/10 at 8:21pm
Thread Starter 
If John D. McDonald can get one...

I hate it when Robert B. Parker is compared to hacks like Dan Brown. Parker was a good writer. For one thing, he could write a sentence that made sense.

First, http://bullets-and-beer.com/Books.html click a title and you'll see a butt-load of info on most of the books. My favorite part is the quotes section. Parker was a very talented dialogue man.

Parker deserves his status as a legend. He started out in a time when the P.I. novel was all but dead and kick-started it by taking the familiar mold and innovating. Susan Silverman and Hawk would forever change the genre. He was funny, progressive(I'm reading Playmates right now where Spenser investigates a star college basketball player shaving points, and so far, besides Spenser, the strongest and most real character is the kid's girlfriend. ), and just plain talented. I'll miss him.

In honor of his memory, I created a tribute to him with a retrospective and dozens of quotes from other authors. I've sent it to a close friend of his, Gary Braver, so hopefully Joan and his sons see it, that their loved one was revered by so many.


Part 1

http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2010...rker-fond.html


Part 2
http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2010...r-fond_25.html
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post #2 of 11
1/25/10 at 9:33pm
Good job, Cameron. Parker could be aggravating, but he could write, and people always came back to him. I wish more of his imitators had his talent and discipline.

Max Allan Collins always seems to come off like a dick.
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post #3 of 11
1/25/10 at 9:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Subotai View Post
Good job, Cameron. Parker could be aggravating, but he could write, and people always came back to him. I wish more of his imitators had his talent and discipline.



Max Allan Collins always seems to come off like a dick.
The modern books weren't as good(Though I like them and they were never less than readable with great dialogue, and School Days is great as well as the Jesse Stone books)

I didn't agree with Collins's comments
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post #4 of 11
1/25/10 at 10:03pm
Collins has some talent, but he seems terribly insecure - hard to find an interview where he references a colleague without saying "I did it first." The Lloyd Kaufman of crime fiction.

I've been trying to think which Parker is my favourite, haven't been able to do it yet. But he wrote with an old-school economy of words which many of his disciples would do well to adopt.
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post #5 of 11
1/26/10 at 1:18am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Subotai View Post
Collins has some talent, but he seems terribly insecure - hard to find an interview where he references a colleague without saying "I did it first." The Lloyd Kaufman of crime fiction.

I've been trying to think which Parker is my favourite, haven't been able to do it yet. But he wrote with an old-school economy of words which many of his disciples would do well to adopt.
I'm going on a binge right now. Playmates is great. Parker loved the idea of teaching, but hated academia. It really shows in this book as he tries to figure out how this kid got to his senior of college when he couldn't read or write.

Parker had a gift for making his characters act and sound human, and at his best, there were a lot more innocents that were victimized either by a real bad guy or society than there were bad guys.

I tried to get as many P.I. writers in there as I could. Getting Crais was very important to me.
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post #6 of 11
1/26/10 at 4:15am
Yes, that was a nice blog.

His early stuff was a little wordy, and his later stuff was super-minimalist and pretty much just formula, but he had a real hot streak from 1980-1985 where he combined creativity, prose, ambition and a solid soap-opera throughline. A CATSKILL EAGLE is his masterpiece for me. You could carry that thing around like a Bible. Everything you need to know about life is in there, in theory, with not a word wasted.

My Top 5:

#1: A CATSKILL EAGLE
#2: EARLY AUTUMN
#3: VALEDICTION
#4: LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE
#5: A SAVAGE PLACE

Outside of the 80-85 Golden Era, standouts are SMALL VICES and POTSHOT. Is POTSHOT the only one in the last 25 years that even attempts an unusual plotline?

His worst of the ones I've read is, sadly, the last one: THE PROFESSIONAL. I struggled to finish it. Who can be bothered? I can't remember a word of it. It's especially disappointing because it looked like Spenser and Susan were about to get married a couple of books ago, and it fizzled out.
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post #7 of 11
1/26/10 at 4:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul McCartney View Post
Yes, that was a nice blog.

His early stuff was a little wordy, and his later stuff was super-minimalist and pretty much just formula, but he had a real hot streak from 1980-1985 where he combined creativity, prose, ambition and a solid soap-opera throughline. A CATSKILL EAGLE is his masterpiece for me. You could carry that thing around like a Bible. Everything you need to know about life is in there, in theory, with not a word wasted.

My Top 5:

#1: A CATSKILL EAGLE
#2: EARLY AUTUMN
#3: VALEDICTION
#4: LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE
#5: A SAVAGE PLACE

Outside of the 80-85 Golden Era, standouts are SMALL VICES and POTSHOT. Is POTSHOT the only one in the last 25 years that even attempts an unusual plotline?

His worst of the ones I've read is, sadly, the last one: THE PROFESSIONAL. I struggled to finish it. Who can be bothered? I can't remember a word of it. It's especially disappointing because it looked like Spenser and Susan were about to get married a couple of books ago, and it fizzled out.
School Days is great. They were all never less than readable with great dialogue. I also really like Jesse Stone and his westerns.
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post #8 of 11
2/9/10 at 10:12pm
Sorry to be late to the party on this, but I've been intermittently trying to figure out my login to this site (forgot it a while back), and when I saw this thread it just clicked in my head. I guess I had to comment. I didn't realize he had died till I read this. I love Robert B. Parker! He could be redundant at times and some of his novels (A Catskill Eagle in particular, for me) are just a little too big in scope. He made Spenser Superman-like after awhile, and that hurt/helped the character in equal measures. That novel almost made me stop reading Parker. Everyone has hiccups though. I thought he was at his best when he was dealing with crime on a smaller level and using to it comment on professionalism, relationships (between lovers, friends, enemies, etc.) and manhood. His novels are endlessly readable, and I was always amazed at how he could mine the themes I mentioned above while still maintaining such economy of writing. And even though I love Spenser to death, and have gotten on the Jesse Stone bandwagon as of late, my hands down favorite Robert B. Parker novel is Double Play. I picked that up in the airport on my way to FT. Benning and it's something I can pick up anytime and read in one sitting.

Does anyone know if he finished Chasing the Bear? Read the first chapter of that a couple months back and was really anxious to read it when it came out. R.I.P.
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post #9 of 11
2/9/10 at 10:21pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FTW Kid View Post
Sorry to be late to the party on this, but I've been intermittently trying to figure out my login to this site (forgot it a while back), and when I saw this thread it just clicked in my head. I guess I had to comment. I didn't realize he had died till I read this. I love Robert B. Parker! He could be redundant at times and some of his novels (A Catskill Eagle in particular, for me) are just a little too big in scope. He made Spenser Superman-like after awhile, and that hurt/helped the character in equal measures. That novel almost made me stop reading Parker. Everyone has hiccups though. I thought he was at his best when he was dealing with crime on a smaller level and using to it comment on professionalism, relationships (between lovers, friends, enemies, etc.) and manhood. His novels are endlessly readable, and I was always amazed at how he could mine the themes I mentioned above while still maintaining such economy of writing. And even though I love Spenser to death, and have gotten on the Jesse Stone bandwagon as of late, my hands down favorite Robert B. Parker novel is Double Play. I picked that up in the airport on my way to FT. Benning and it's something I can pick up anytime and read in one sitting.

Does anyone know if he finished Chasing the Bear? Read the first chapter of that a couple months back and was really anxious to read it when it came out. R.I.P.
Chasing the Bear was published, yes.
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post #10 of 11
2/9/10 at 10:29pm
Ok, I haven't seen it anywhere.
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post #11 of 11
2/9/10 at 10:47pm
I think it's found in the young adult section of the stores - not among the Spensers.
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