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Hard-Boiled And Old SchoolPosted at 5:28PM Sunday 02 Mar 2008 If you read too much Robert B Parker, it's very easy to find yourself slipping into a bad parody of his very good style - a style that marks him out as the doyen of old-school, hard-boiled American pulp.In person, he fits his fictive persona well. He speaks with a growling Massachussets accent. At 75 he boxes and lifts weights twice a week, and could pass for someone 15 or at a pinch 20 years younger. Since 1971 Parker has churned out something like 50 crime novels set in and around Boston. The formula doesn't vary much, but the execution is incredibly surefooted. The writing is bare and spare. You learn what the characters are wearing and what they're eating, and the rest is all-but-entirely dialogue: whip-smart wisecracks and tough-guy understatement.
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