James Crumley in Montana
New novel(1996) by James Crumley
Born in Texas in 1939, James Crumley spent his youth in the southern part of that state. He served as enlisted man for 3 years in the US Army.
His first novel, 'One to Count the Cadence' (published in 1969) is a forceful rendition of the war in Vietnam in 1962 lived by a platoon of enlistees and sergeant Kummel, scholar by intention. This top grade book about friendship, war, absurdities of the army life and survival was acclaimed at the time and is still in print today due to the basic value of Crumley's writing style and narrative construction.
Hard-Boiled mystery genre was only produced later by Crumley as you can see in the BIBLIO on the left. Our list does not include the short stories.
James Crumley has taught in American Universities, under others in the University of Montana. He is in fact a long time resident in Montana, state that he quits from time to time but where he always come back as he admits. Heavy drinker, according to people knowing him well, he is also a cultured man knowing all about American cinema, a fan of good country music, and a writer that reads Tolstoï, Dostoïevsky or Dickens, again and again...
HARD-BOILED...
As for his Hard-Boiled novels, until recently there were two 'series' (short series, as his production is low!) each with a different PI. The older novels' character was Milo. As for the recent ones it was Sughrue.
His brand new novel (December 96), 'Bordersnakes' shows both PIs in the same story. This last treat is a kind of self-pastiche! Is it to avoid some later author to mix them himself in a pastiche, as this is so frequent with very famous detective characters- the kind of 'Arsène Lupin against Sherlock Holmes case', or maybe 'Miss Marple against Mike Hammer'...?
Always with fast and dense action, bloody outcomes and a pessimistic view of humanity in general, Crumley's Hard-Boiled novels go to the countryside. This, most of the time, put his characters on long traveling by road, in a quest for disaster. Or they elect small mountain villages to try to escape to the dark world that surround them.
Crumley has a touch of his own to describe these journeys through American highways, small towns, second rates motels, lost villages and deep nights in unknown territories.
Characters such as Sughrue are cynical, tough, detached but still searching for a kind of redemption. Friendship is one of the milestones of the redemption paths, as well as some totally innocent creatures crossing the hell of Crumley's anti-heroes by (bad?) luck...
Stories and their continuity are not forgotten in Crumley's novels, but characters, typical events of the past, and hellish situations are more important and masterfully described by the author.
'The Mexican Tree Duck' is a good example of how deep in noir and nightmares his characters can go.
A review of this book is available in our pages.
The Wrong Case (1976)
The Last Good Kiss (1978)
Dancing Bear (1983)
The Mexican Tree Duck (1993)
Bordersnakes (1996)
British Edition
