Comments on: A Quiet Week

By: LORI SPRINGER

LORI SPRINGER — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:34:19 +0000

Last week, at a highway rest stop, we encountered an abandoned dog. The dog had been there for 5 days. S/he wouldn’t let anyone near her, though other dogs could visit. We tried for 45 minutes. If we’d been able to get her we could’ve put her over a fence to join a pack of dogs on an adjacent ranch. We fluctuated between tears and raage at this horrible act of cruelty.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:07:06 +0000

Doug Clark, Thank you so much–i’m overwhelmed–PD James’ good opinion is one I value very greatly, and I hadn’t seen this.

By: Doug Clark

Doug Clark — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:45:16 +0000

Ms. Paretsky, I am so sorry about your week, especially the dog torture and fall. Hopefully, this will bring a little light to your day (and I’m guessing you’ve already seen it). A book just released in the US last Tuesday (December 1) titled “Talking About Detective Fiction” by renowned novelist P.D. James discusses the origins and techniques of mostly British detective fiction. However, in a chapter on primarily Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, she writes the following:

“For me the most remarkable of the moderns is Sara Paretsky. When she created her private eye, V. I. Warshawsky, it was in conscious emulation of the myth of the solitary private eye and his lone campaign against the corruption of the powerful, but her Polish-American heroine has a humility, a humanity and a need for human relationships which the male hard-boilers lack. Her territory is Chicago, not the Chicago of the dramatic city centre or the prosperous suburbs, but the city’s southeast side, the neighbourhood of the poor who live in shanties on the contaminated marshland known as Dead Stick Pond. Paretsky creates a powerful vision of the Chicago where V. I. Warshawsky grew up and where she operates as a courageous, sexually liberated female investigator. Through her heroine and in her private life of speaking and journalism, Paretsky conducts her campaign against injustice and, in particular, for the right of women to control their lives and sexuality. No other female crime writer has so powerfully and effectively combined a well-crafted detective story with the novel of social realism and protest.” (P. D. James, Talking About Detective Fiction, pp.92-93)

This was a very interesting and short study. For anyone interested in the craft of writing detective fiction, the book makes for enjoyable reading.

I hope this week is going better, Ms. Paretsky.

Kind regards,

Doug Clark

By: amanda toney

amanda toney — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:47:18 +0000

Hi Sara,
Just wanted to thank you for another execellent, fast read, in Hardball. I read it in one day and one night (smile). I love V.I.

By: Shirley Harrison

Shirley Harrison — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 02:28:52 +0000

I work with the golden retriever rescue and see too often how humans treat these wonderful dogs. People often tell me they can’t believe there is a need for a golden retriever rescue.

By: bookwitch

bookwitch — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:48:16 +0000

Bag Lady, I’m forever trying. I’m really very trying. But I will always have enough padding for falling on, unlike Sara. But yes, the idea is good, and we should. You start.

By: genny from jersey

genny from jersey — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:26:56 +0000

Sara, what a week you’ve had.

There have been a rash of home burglaries in our area lately. In one case, the burglars (guys in their 20′s) actually lived on the same street and burglarized their neighbors homes. They were looking for items/cash they could use to buy drugs. Now the parents have to live with the sins of thir son & his buddies everytime they walk out of their home.

The brazen animal abuser… There are no adequate words. I’m been to the museum of science and industry many times so I’m somewhat familiar with the area.

Sometimes I think cellphones are the devil’s work. Guess you being attacked by one (sounds plausible right) if proof of that! Hope you weren’t too far from home when you got hurt.

By: paretsky

paretsky — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:47:34 +0000

Bag Lady, you are so right–I spent the better part of 2 days imagining that I had a Smith & Wesson and taught that monster a lesson. Animal cruelty is so sickening. A Chicago police sergeant came to me once about 10 years ago asking if I would help him write a book about it, but I couldn’t–I know it was wimpy, but the description of the abuse and the callous laughter of the human onlookers is so horrific that I couldn’t bear to touch it.

On the lighter side, I love all the dog tales, especially Cheryl’s Peggy. Once when I was out with my former Golden, cardhu, I was knocked to the ground by a bicyclist, who cursed me for being on the lake path before zooming on. Cardhu actually left her exploration of a garbage can to make sure I was still alive–sniffed me from head to toe, then went back to exploring garbage.

And yes, Bookwitch–you are allowed to laugh–I live to bring pleasure to others!

By: CherylK

CherylK — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:29:46 +0000

Well, I’m very sorry you had that little accident and I hope you’re on the mend. As for your pooch…I can identify. We had a Golden Retriever when I was growing up. Her name was Peggy, believe it or not. She actually let some rascally teenagers steal a car from our driveway while we were away one night. We lived in a very small town in North Dakota and one of the teens was the daughter of local police chief. Everybody knew everybody there, of course. The kids were caught and confessed and said that our dog just wagged her tail at them.

By: the Bag Lady

the Bag Lady — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:59:18 +0000

Oh, ouch, Sara! My old (dearly departed) golden would have lain beside me and licked my face (in fact, he did just that once when I took a tumble on the ice while feeding cows), but the Border Collie/Australian Shepherd that I have now would have done what your golden did. Sigh.
(Loved the cartoon, though!)

As far as the fellow torturing the dog? Makes you wish you were really VI, and packing a weapon, doesn’t it? It makes my blood boil when I see cruelty of any kind, but especially to an animal!

(Bookwitch – stop snickering! Poor Sara doesn’t have any padding to protect her when she falls! Speaking of padding, how goes the battle with yours? I noticed you didn’t answer when I responded to your little challenge…..!)