tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post8454840675226491396..comments2024-03-28T18:21:09.285-05:00Comments on Rough Edges: West Coast Blues - Jacque Tardi and Jean-Patrick ManchetteJames Reasonerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18049917964433932612noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post-46687233161069135922009-09-03T01:22:22.320-05:002009-09-03T01:22:22.320-05:00James: for what it's worth, here are my commen...James: for what it's worth, here are my comments on 3 to Kill (taken from Pulpetti): <br /><br />Jean-Patrick Manchette: 3 to Kill (1975): one of the weirdest crime novels I've read in a long, long time. Very literary, it seems to be drawing its inspirations from the Roman nouveau of the fifties (very precise and detached style with emphasis on descriptions of people's clothes etc.), but also from the American hardboiled and noir crime novels. The story is about a man who finds a body on a highway and takes him to a hospital, only to find out that two killers are at him. He runs away after a violent burst of action at a gas station to find himself somewhere deep in the woods living with an old Stalinist. After the killers find him there, he decides to fight back and get back to his normal life. Manchette doesn't really give much weight to logical behaviour, but that would be beside the point; there are several clues about post-Marxist movements of 1968 and beyond to realize that this is a political novel - but about what, to that I found no answer. The English translation seemed too literary, too British to me. <br /><br />I don't know how much of that weird policital commentary made it to Tardi's work, but it will still be interesting to see. <br /><br />If you get the chance to read Tardi's work on Leo Malet's Nestor Burma novels, do check them out. 120, Rue de la Gare is one of the best graphic novels I've read.Jurihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03021010310386744591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post-64488166195397725062009-09-02T23:01:36.450-05:002009-09-02T23:01:36.450-05:00I just ordered THE PRONE GUNMAN.I just ordered THE PRONE GUNMAN.James Reasonerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18049917964433932612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post-91257382107693165432009-09-02T17:57:19.524-05:002009-09-02T17:57:19.524-05:00Can't wait to read this adaptation of Three to...Can't wait to read this adaptation of <i>Three to Kill</i>. Manchette's <i>The Prone Gunman</i> is tremendous. I look forward to hearing what you think of his books.Vincehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11473441336451528462noreply@blogger.com