Linda L. Richards has an interesting post at "The Rap Sheet" about the latest on Laura Lippman, author of the terrific new novel, What the Dead Know.Richards quotes from an interview Lippman gave the Wall Street Journal about the influence of HBO's "The Wire" on some writers:
I know young writers who want to write like “The Wire,” not realizing it’s built on such novels as Richard Price’s “Clockers” and Dennis Lehane’s “Mystic River,” or the great body of George Pelecanos's work.Those comments reminded me of what this guy wrote on the subject in August 2006.
Sometimes I hear people say it’s like Dickens or Tolstoy, and I think: Even the intellectuals don’t want to read a book any more. As complicated and daunting as “The Wire” is, if you can prop yourself up on the couch, it will proceed on its own. But a book requires initiative to turn the page and engage your own imagination. I don’t understand novelists looking to a TV show that has clearly drawn its strengths from novelists. They should be looking at it and say, “now I should read everything Richard Price has written.”
--Marshal Zeringue
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