Wed 9 Dec 2020
Reviewed by Dan Stumpf: RICHARD LAYMAN & JULIE RIVETT, Editors – Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett.
Posted by Steve under Reference works / Biographies , Reviews[4] Comments
RICHARD LAYMAN & JULIE RIVETT, Editors – Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett. Counterpoint, hardcover, 2001; paperback, 2002.
Speaking of Dashiell Hammett, he came a cropper again more recently, this time a victim of the Bloated Times we live in. With Adventure Books coming out at over 400 pages, movies routinely over two-and-a-half-hours long, and Comic Books that take a whole year to tell a story, I guess it had to happen to even the champion of lean, terse writing, and the latest evidence of this mindless pursuit of Bigness is Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett, “edited” – and I use the word contemptuously — by Richard Layman and Julie Rivett.
A few numbers back, I praised Raymond Chandler Speaking, and the virtues of that compact little gem shine all the more brightly next to the sullen morass of Selected/Hammett. Layman and Rivett seem totally incapable of winnowing the Meaningful from the trivia that constitutes most correspondence, and as a result we get over 600 pages (!) of Who went to what party, How much Life Insurance should we buy, Will the Heat Spell ever break, and — Oh God I can’t go on with it.
The reader who wades through this swamp must combine a fanatical devotion to Hammett with a total lack of discrimination and the patience of Sisyphus. Stay away.
December 9th, 2020 at 9:48 pm
Sounds as if ‘selected’ was used selectively in this case.
December 9th, 2020 at 10:46 pm
Good, bad or indifferent I want this.
February 25th, 2021 at 11:14 pm
I have literally just finished reading this, and up through the first 400 pages the word bloat has some meaning and tighter editing surely recommended, but that final third, the last of Hammett is overwhelming, and while cutting at the start through the midpoint is still desirable, the overall effect is moving and overwhelming. An experience not to be missed. Oh, and Hammett is not only a right guy, but it seems he is seldom right about anything; opinionated but lovable.
Highly recommended.
February 26th, 2021 at 12:15 am
What I have struggled to say, this is a helluva book, but flawed and the flaws matter. A lot. A good editor, or a really bad one might pare it down considerably, but in doing so, lose Hammett, and we certainly don’t want to do that.