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Cargando... The Doomsters (Lew Archer Series) (edición 2007)por Ross Macdonald (Autor)
Información de la obraThe Doomsters por Ross Macdonald
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Maybe more like 4 1/2. wasn't so interested in the story as story, but did like the meandering way Archer is drawn in, the house in the orange groves, and the innocent (but not) wife of the crazy man. Excellent spinning out of control evening of houses burning down, ladies murdered, revelations coming in waves and final existential resolution. The doomsters are from poem - the gloomy ones chasing the family and never allowing a happy ending. Between Hammett and Chandler, MacDonald is my choice. Archer's broody, moral, reflective and self-critical stance is a refreshing addition to the genre. A little bit of Faulkner on the mean streets. Not a great book, but a welcome reminder of reading MacDonald from the Cedar Rapids Public Library long, long ago. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Distinciones
Hired by Carl Hallman, the desperate-eyed junkie scion of an obscenely wealthy political dynasty, detective Lew Archer investigates the suspicious deaths of his parents, Senator Hallman and his wife Alicia. Arriving in the sleepy town of Purissima, Archer discovers that orange groves may be where the Hallmans made their mint, but they’ve has been investing heavily in political intimidation and police brutality to shore up their rancid wealth. However, after years of dastardly double-crossing and low down dirty-dealing, the family seem to be on the receiving end of a karmic death-blow. With two dead already and another consigned to the nuthouse, Archer races to crack the secret before another Hallman lands on the slab.Murder, madness and greed grace The Doomsters, where a tony façade masks the rot and corruption within. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares
Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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The ending features a surprising, almost shocking twist, but not of the plot. Instead, Archer, who we’ve come to know in seven books as our moral guide through the ugly side of Southern California, starts to question the unspoken bedrock of the crime thriller: the idea that right and wrong are easy to identify, and that the only thing needed for goodness to triumph is to see to it that the evil can do nothing.
“I didn't want to be stuck for the rest of my life with the old black-and-white picture, the idea that there were just good people and bad people, and everything would be hunky-dory if the good people locked up the bad ones or wiped them out with small personalized nuclear weapons,” says Archer, thinking aloud as the narrator. “For years I'd been fighting fire with fire and violence with violence, running on fool's errands while the people died: a slightly earthbound Tarzan in a slightly paranoid jungle. It was time I traded the picture in on one that included a few of the finer shades.”
And a sympathetic character, a hospital nurse, says: “Since I've been doing hospital work, I've pretty well got over thinking in terms of good and bad. Those categories often do more harm than—well, good. We use them to torment ourselves, and hate ourselves because we can't live up to them. Before we know it, we're turning our hatred against other people, especially the unlucky ones, the weak ones who can't fight back. We think we have to punish somebody for the human mess were in, so we single out the scapegoats and call them evil. And Christian love and virtue go down the drain."
A blurb from The Atlantic Monthly says “Most mystery writers merely write about crime. Ross Macdonald writes about sin.” If you broaden the concept of “sin” from its religious context to include moral right and wrong, the realm of the conscience, this is exactly right. I can’t imagine Archer’s ruminations sat too well with many fans who read thrillers for the satisfying pleasure of seeing the guilty get their comeuppance. Macdonald is explicitly making the case here that it’s not that simple. And I salute him for it. ( )