Ken Bruen's novels are the closest thing we have to hardboiled poetry.
Once Were Cops, his latest knockout standalone, muscles it even further in that direction, to the point where you're not sure where
novel ends and
poetry begins.
You can see it the moment you open the book. The pages aren't dense with paragraphs; there are shotgun-pattern blasts of sentences, dialogue, and sometimes, single words. You don't read it so much as let it assault you.
Ken's genius is that he packs so much meaning into each little pellet of birdshot.
He only describes something when he means it, not when he wants to fill out a graph or a page. He breaks out the dialogue so that you can really
hear it, not breeze by it. He drags you into some psycho's world, and damn if you're not there, listening to him mumble in your mind.
Ken happens to be blogging this week at
Moments in Crime, St. Martin's Minotaur's house blog, and in a post earlier this week, he revealed a bit of his process:
Like my novels, I actually write much lengthier entries and then root out all that sounds off.
I read it aloud and if it doesn't have that jagged tone of real speech, bin it.
Ken bins only the filler, never the kill
er.
Once Were Cops has a beautiful twisting plot that never telegraphs its punches, as well as a collection of unsavory and sadistic fuckers that you somehow compel you to stay with them, no matter what unsavory and sadistic things they do. (And God, what they do in this novel...)
I can't recommend this one enough.
Ken Bruen, to interviewer (and novelist) Ray Banks:
Ken Bruen's novels are the closest thing we have to hardboiled poetry. Once Were Cops, his latest knockout standalone, muscles it even further in that direction, to the point where you're not sure where novel ends and poetry begins.
Over at pointlesswasteoftime.com there's a collection of fake book covers (like the one above) you can slap over the final Harry Potter novel, just in case you're embarassed to read it in front of your tough guy friends. The covers are very funny. But the fake blurbs are even better. God, would I kill for a blurb like "Will completely blow your shit off."
With real datelines and everything! Like, from around the country!
I swear, Allan Guthrie Week is over. Really. It's not my fault that a brand-new, top-shelf crime webzine called Pulp Pusher features a Q&A; with Sunshine in its debut issue. But you really should check it out. And while you're there, read the Q&A with Ken Bruen, as well as "Photos," an exclusive excerpt from Ken's forthcoming memoir, Benign Thug. It's a beautiful piece of writing that will also haunt the living hell out of you. Plus, there are stories by Ray Banks, Cathi Unsworth, Tony Black, JD Smith and Paul McGoran. All in an attractive package with the best sticker price of all: free.
