Her voice, His voice

I bet my wife once that I could tell her the gender of an author by reading the first few pages of of the novel. The female voice in the narative is much different than that of the male. The one book that comes to mind that was written by a woman but had a mostly male voice was "Water for Elephants". A very good book no matter the voice.



My favorite writers happen to be all men but I'm sure that's not a surprise. Early on I became a huge John Steinbeck fan. My favorite two novels of his are strangely enough are not "The Grapes of Wrath" or "East of Eden", both masterpieces, but instead, "Cannery Row" and its sequel "Sweet Thursday". I've read both at least twenty times. It's like reading the best prose that reads like poetry. I just have always loved Doc and the boys. In my twenties I fell for the Travis McGee series by John D MacDonald. I still have the original paperbacks. Most of my friends know that I am a big Western fan and soon I will write about westerns and what they mean to our culture. So many think I must be a big fan of Louie L'Amour. He must have written 500 westerns but to my mind only a handful of really good ones. For my money the best westerns were written by Elmore Leonard. Yes, that Elmore Leonard. When he first started writing he wrote some of the best. Check out "Hombre, Valdez is Coming, and a great book of short stories called The Tonto Woman". The Tonto Woman is the best set of western short stories since Dorothy M Johnson's "Indian Country". Dorothy Johnson and Leonard have in common that several of their short stories were made into movies. I have to believe that Elmore Leonard has more movies made of his works that any other writer, living or dead.

If you like to write, go to the bookstore and buy "Elmore Leonard's 10 rules of writing". It's better than a college course. Please Mr. Leonard won't you write some more westerns. Robert B Parker is and if you do you might revive an American institution.

Today I will buy any Robert B Parker book when it comes out. Spencer and Jesse Stone rock. And, better yet he has recently published a trilogy of really good Westerns, "Appaloosa", "Resolution" and "Brimstone" featuring Virgil Cole and Hitch the best buddy team since Butch and Sundance.



I am current reading "Scaramouche" by Rapheal Sabatini. Most his books were written in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Once you get by the style of writing of that era and whether you are man or woman, if you like your swashbuckling, sword fighting, dashing hero's in historically correct intelligent novels, old Rapheal is your guy. My other favorite of his is "Captain Blood". Check it out.

I was taught to read before I went to school and quite frankly reading has made me the man I am. It may be the most important thing a child learns.