Posts tagged Richard Condon

thelamplightersserenade asked: Do you have recommendations for spy novels? I've read Tinker Tailor and plan to read the rest of the Karla trilogy, I have the IPCRESS Files on my list, and the Company. Do you have any cold war films/novels you can recommend?

John le Carré’s Cold War novels are good (his post-Cold War novels are less so).  I would especially recommend The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (and the movie with Richard Burton).  I have a number of espionage novels around, I just have yet to read them all.  The definitive Cold War neo-noir is probably The Manchurian Candidate, though the novel by Richard Condon is not really noir.  The Third Man also deals with international politics, as do a number of other Graham Greene novels.

Eric Ambler wrote some hardboiled spy thrillers.  The Fallen Sparrow, by the always excellent Dorothy B. Hughes, has some foreign intrigue in the plot.  Richard Hershatter and Andrew Garve wrote pulpy espionage novels, as did Donald Hamilton (Matt Helm doesn’t remotely resemble Dean Martin, by the way).

And let us not forget Ian Fleming’s James Bond.  As I have argued previously, I think James Bond is a hardboiled hero.  Especially in Casino Royale, which has near-noirish fatalism.  In the other novels, the noir elements are perhaps less apparent.  But he is a hardboiled, pulpy hero—a Tory Mike Hammer, if you will.

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thelamplightersserenade asked: A noir storyline is characterized by normal people committing extraordinary crimes (Double Indemnity, The Letter). But there are mysteries all over "Best of noir" lists that are characterized by their whodunit storylines, like "The Maltese Falcon", "Laura", and "In a Lonely Place". Then there are the noir story lines that make no connection with the standard noirs; White Heat, Notorious. What is the difference?

This is one I should have answered long, long ago, so I apologize.  But here’s the best answer I’ve been able to formulate in the interim:

Part of the problem is that film noir refers to both noir and hardboiled fiction (I cursorily sketch the differences between the two here).  Noir is, of course, an offshoot of hardboiled crime fiction.  But The Maltese Falcon (hardboiled classic) is called a film noir, just like Double Indemnity (noir classic).  This explains some of the differences you note. (In a Lonely Place is noir, but the original novel by Dorothy B. Hughes has quite a bit of hardboiled dialogue.)

A further distinction is that film noir became a reference not only to the origin of the script, but also a visual style.  Notorious is filmed in this style.  I know relatively little about Vera Caspary, but what little I know indicates that she wrote neither hardboiled nor noir.  Richard Condon wrote thrillers and satires, but not hardboiled/noir stories.  But the film adaptions of Laura and The Manchurian Candidate used the film-making techniques associated with film noir (The Manchurian Candidate, made in 1962, is better termed a neo-noir—but that’s another can of worms entirely).

As a result, there is a great diversity of what could properly be noir.  It depends whether one is talking of films or books, and chronology also plays a part (film noir proper is regarded as ending around 1958).

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48 years ago, JFK was shot in Dallas.  The film noir (more properly, neo-noir) most associated with Kennedy’s assassination is The Manchurian Candidate.  Starring Kennedy’s close friend Frank Sinatra, The Manchurian Candidate is widely rumored to have been removed from circulation for 25 years because it reminded Sinatra of the president’s death.  The evidence for this is debatable, but it has resulted in a close association between the film and and Kennedy’s assassination. But The Manchurian Candidate is first and foremost a perfectly acted neo-noir (unlike the remake).  Its Cold War plot (also unlike the tepid remake) was equal parts startling and disturbing.  Regardless of the tenuous link to Kennedy’s assassination, I am getting reacquainted with this classic today.

48 years ago, JFK was shot in Dallas.  The film noir (more properly, neo-noir) most associated with Kennedy’s assassination is The Manchurian Candidate.  Starring Kennedy’s close friend Frank Sinatra, The Manchurian Candidate is widely rumored to have been removed from circulation for 25 years because it reminded Sinatra of the president’s death.  The evidence for this is debatable, but it has resulted in a close association between the film and and Kennedy’s assassination.

But The Manchurian Candidate is first and foremost a perfectly acted neo-noir (unlike the remake).  Its Cold War plot (also unlike the tepid remake) was equal parts startling and disturbing.  Regardless of the tenuous link to Kennedy’s assassination, I am getting reacquainted with this classic today.

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Here is a rather large stack of the pulp/noir crime fiction I’ve picked up in the past six months or so.  I’ll strikethrough the books I’ve already read.  From the top, then: R is for Ricochet, Sue Grafton The Goodwulf Manuscript, Robert Parker The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson A Bullet for Cinderella, John D. MacDonald The Dark Frontier, Eric Ambler The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon The Bride Wore Black, Cornell Woolrich In a Lonely Place, Dorothy B. Hughes One Fearful Yellow Eye, John D. MacDonald Thunderball, Ian Fleming Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy A Hell of a Woman, Jim Thompson When the Women Come Out to Dance, Elmore Leonard Three By Cain, James M. Cain (consisting of Serenade, Love’s Lovely Counterfeit and The Butterfly) The Long Fall, Walter Mosley All Shot Up, Chester Himes Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane Miami Noir, edited by Les Standiford License Renewed, John Gardner Bad Business, Robert B. Parker The Underground Man, Ross Macdonald A Triple Shot of Spenser, Robert B. Parker (consisting of Pastime, Double Deuce and Paper Doll) Nature Girl, Carl Hiaasen The Cold Six Thousand, James Ellroy I’ll be doing a separate post soon about good places to look for cheap/used/out of print noir and pulp titles.  These books here were accumulated from a couple different sources, and their cost ranged from free to about $7.  The library is also free, and you should use it.  But some of use have the collecting instinct… Noir is notoriously tricky to define (though somewhat easier in diction than film, where is is sometimes more difficult to determine what is not a neo-noir).  I include Ian Fleming’s James Bond as a pulp hero.  A very Tory pulp hero, but a pulp hero all the same.  Bond continuation novels are a mixed bag, and I include John Gardner’s License Renewed here because I haven’t read it yet.  After reading it, I might decide it belonged to some other genre, along with Raymond Benson’s unfortunate continuation novels (which are airport novels at best and fanfiction at worst). These do not represent the totality of my reading, as I also use the library frequently.  You’ll want to check out the Currently Reading tag.  I’ll probably be cheating and adding some of these books I’ve already read to that tag. 

Here is a rather large stack of the pulp/noir crime fiction I’ve picked up in the past six months or so.  I’ll strikethrough the books I’ve already read.  From the top, then:

  • R is for Ricochet, Sue Grafton
  • The Goodwulf Manuscript, Robert Parker
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
  • A Bullet for Cinderella, John D. MacDonald
  • The Dark Frontier, Eric Ambler
  • The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon
  • The Bride Wore Black, Cornell Woolrich
  • In a Lonely Place, Dorothy B. Hughes
  • One Fearful Yellow Eye, John D. MacDonald
  • Thunderball, Ian Fleming
  • Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming
  • The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy
  • A Hell of a Woman, Jim Thompson
  • When the Women Come Out to Dance, Elmore Leonard
  • Three By Cain, James M. Cain (consisting of Serenade, Love’s Lovely Counterfeit and The Butterfly)
  • The Long Fall, Walter Mosley
  • All Shot Up, Chester Himes
  • Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane
  • Miami Noir, edited by Les Standiford
  • License Renewed, John Gardner
  • Bad Business, Robert B. Parker
  • The Underground Man, Ross Macdonald
  • A Triple Shot of Spenser, Robert B. Parker (consisting of Pastime, Double Deuce and Paper Doll)
  • Nature Girl, Carl Hiaasen
  • The Cold Six Thousand, James Ellroy

I’ll be doing a separate post soon about good places to look for cheap/used/out of print noir and pulp titles.  These books here were accumulated from a couple different sources, and their cost ranged from free to about $7.  The library is also free, and you should use it.  But some of use have the collecting instinct…

Noir is notoriously tricky to define (though somewhat easier in diction than film, where is is sometimes more difficult to determine what is not a neo-noir).  I include Ian Fleming’s James Bond as a pulp hero.  A very Tory pulp hero, but a pulp hero all the same.  Bond continuation novels are a mixed bag, and I include John Gardner’s License Renewed here because I haven’t read it yet.  After reading it, I might decide it belonged to some other genre, along with Raymond Benson’s unfortunate continuation novels (which are airport novels at best and fanfiction at worst).

These do not represent the totality of my reading, as I also use the library frequently.  You’ll want to check out the Currently Reading tag.  I’ll probably be cheating and adding some of these books I’ve already read to that tag. 

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