Monday, October 24, 2011

Andrew Taylor on James Sallis

In The Spectator this week, an appreciation of James Sallis (who wrote the book on which "Drive" was based and who has a new novel out) by the wonderful crime writer Andrew Taylor. Makes me wonder if the relative failure of the movie was a case of pearls and swine. I thought this was interesting:

As a young man, he spent a good deal of time in England at the invitation of Michael Moorcock, who asked him to become the fiction editor of the science fiction magazine, New Worlds. During his time there, the magazine became increasingly experimental and literary, before lurching into bankruptcy.

He began writing, too — surreal, intense short stories. He became something of a linguist: he has published translations from French, Russian and Polish poetry. He is himself a poet, as well as an expert on blues and jazz who has written extensively about music.

1 comment:

David Chute said...

Best of all: "If the novel has a theme, it is that patterns matter. As Christian realises, 'What people often mistook in him for intelligence was primarily an awareness of patterns and correspondences.'

The detective is aware of patterns, too, and they underpin what another sort of crime writer might call the denouement."