At 03:06 PM 5/15/02 -0700, you wrote: Hawk in
>particular seems straining to burst out of
the
>straitjacket he's in and Susan's such a bitch
that
>it's impossible for me to read about her any more.
She
>doesn't come across as strong, just as a
mystical
>spoiled brat.
Hi Sally,
I have to admit that I haven't seen much use for the
character of Susan Silverman in Parker's writing for some
time now, even though initially she was a breath of fresh
air. As for Hawk, I think he was (also initially) intended to
be the dark half of Spenser, the Satan to Spenser's Lucifer,
doing the things that Spenser sees need doing, but refuses to
do because he's the sort of person Hawk lovingly terms a "boy
scout". In the late 70s a tall, well-muscled black man with a
shaved head in the age of afros was also "cutting edge", I
guess, but as time has passed, Spenser has become more
ruthless, and Hawk has seemed superfluous at times.
Look at one of the most acclaimed books in the Spenser
series, "A Catskill Eagle" for an example of the superfluity
of both Susan and Hawk. Susan loves Spenser. Susan feels
trapped. Susan leaves Spenser, but doesn't really leave him
behind. Susan falls for the ne'er-do-well son of some
obscenely rich and shady guy out on the west coast. Susan
gets in trouble. Susan calls Hawk. Hawk gets in trouble.
Susan sends Spenser a message saying Hawk's in trouble and so
is she and she loves Spenser. Stage is set.
Spenser goes and gets Hawk out of jail using illegal means to
do so. They're on the run, looking for Susan, who apparently
can't make up her mind whether she is strong enough to leave
this new boy toy for the good old, safe/but not safe
Spenser.
Woman in jeopardy? Susan Silverman? That's certainly a step
back from the way she was when she first entered the Spenser
universe. The Hawk of the early Spenser books wouldn't need
rescuing either, and not to give away the ending for those
who have not read it, but Spenser doing the killing he does,
the way he does alone at the end of the book goes competely
against the sort of character he was in the early
books.
Don't get me wrong, I for one am happy to have seen how
Spenser's character has evolved and filled out over the
course of the series, but his evolution into something more
full-bodied, more "human", less white knight, more everyman
(a tough, smart, funny everyman, granted) seems to have come
at the expense of some pretty interesting supporting
characters. How does one avoid this sort of thing? I am not
entirely sure. Parker seems to have tried to avoid turning
Hawk and Susan into caricatures of themselves at least in
part by introducing new, semi-recurring characters like Teddy
Sapp
(the gay southern ex-cop from both "Hugger Mugger" and
"Pot-Shot") to play foil to Spenser, or for Spenser to play
foil to them. I think Parker has been more successful in this
attempt with respect to Hawk than with respect to Susan,
because Hawk is still awfully fun to experience, especially
when driving somewhere bantering with Spenser.
Again, Parker's strength is his dialogue, and it shines
between the two halves of the same "demonic avenging angel"
Spenser/Hawk. Perhaps Susan really had nowhere to go but
down, but she certainly has been more of an afterthought ever
since she came back to Spenser in "A Catskill Eagle".
Just my two cents.;)
Brian
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