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 May-June, 2011
Ranking
the early Spenser novels
Not long ago the New
York Times reported
that
novelist Ace Atkins
will
continue Robert
B. Parker’s series of Spenser
books.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’ve never read Atkins
and the only Spenser
novels I’ve read are the first nine, which came out between 1973
and 1982. I’ve
enjoyed all of them. There are laughs on nearly every page and deft
sensory
descriptions. Parker excels at detailing food, clothes, urban
landscapes, and
interiors. He also has a knack for citing thematically appropriate
poetry.
In general, I’m not
opposed to one writer using the
characters of another. Parker himself did it in 1989 with Poodle Springs,
a continuation of Raymond
Chandler’s last novel. In 1992, Parker penned Perchance
to Dream, a sequel to Chandler’s
The Big Sleep.
With Parker in the news again, I felt it was a suitable time to rank
the early Spenser books:
1. God Save the
Child
(1974). One of Parker’s recurring themes is the incompetence of
biological parents.
But sometimes his parent-child relationships are one-sided, with
children as
innocent victims and parents as relentlessly self-absorbed. This book
is an
exception. And there are sections in it where Parker’s prose
rises to poetry.
2. Early
Autumn (1980). At times Parker’s Susan Silverman
character is implausibly
tolerant of everything Spenser does. Not in this novel. There’s
also a fantastic three-chapter stretch in
which Spenser mentors Paul Giacomin. We see a Spenser we haven’t
yet seen: a
man who regrets not becoming a father. If I didn’t know any
better, I’d guess Parker
based Giacomin on Willa
Cather’s Paul, from her short story, “Paul’s Case.”
3. The Judas Goat
(1978). Seldom is Spenser up against an adversary he can’t
handle. The closest
I’ve come to wondering whether Spenser would emerge victorious is
this novel,
the fifth in the series. Parker’s descriptions of London through
Spenser’s Bostonian eyes are
first-rate.
4. The Godwulf
Manuscript (1973). While later books depict Spenser as a modern
day
knight, this one – the first in the series – reveals
Spenser as a fallible rake
with a loner’s judgment. He sleeps with the vulnerable
20-year-old coed he’s
been hired to protect. Fourteen pages earlier he sleeps with her
married
mother. That Parker renders these actions plausible – and
seamlessly integrates
them in the plot – is no easy feat.
5. A
Savage Place (1981). The rare Spenser novel with an unhappy
ending: TV news reporter Candy Sloan – whom Spenser was hired to
protect – ends up dead. I also give Parker credit for letting
Spenser cheat on Silverman with Sloan. In previous novels, Spenser did
not succumb to temptation. Parker could’ve fallen back on
monogamous platitudes but didn’t.
6. Looking
for
Rachel Wallace (1980). The gold of this novel is Parker’s
creation of
Wallace, a lesbian-feminist author-activist. For my money, she’s
more
believable than John Irving’s Jenny Fields in The
World According to Garp.
7. Mortal Stakes
(1975).
If you’re a baseball fan, bump this up the list. It begins with
Spenser
investigating a Red Sox pitcher for fixing games. The book takes place
in an
era before ESPN, when baseball teams were more like family businesses
than international
conglomerates.
8. Promised
Land
(1976). It’s a fan favorite because of the introduction of Hawk,
Spenser’s
sidekick. It won the Edgar
Award, but for me too much of the dialogue is a gender-bending
sideshow:
the sort of Mars-Venus, men vs. women tripe to which mediocre comedians
and
meager minds resort.
9. Ceremony (1982). Ninth in the
series, it doesn't stand out from the first eight until its ballsy
conclusion. At Spenser's behest, and with Silverman's grudging
approval, teenage prostitute April Kyle - whose parents hired Spenser
to bring her back - lands a job as a high-priced Manhattan call girl.
Weaker authors would've settled for a reunion between Kyle and her
parents. Parker made the challenging choice. He usually did. And that's
why his books have endured.
Ilan Mochari's fiction has been published in Keyhole and honored by Glimmer Train.
In 2009, he received a Literature Artist Fellowship grant from the
Somerville Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts
Cultural Council. He is a former staff writer for Inc, and he has also
written for Fortune Small Business and CFO. He has a B.A. in English from Yale University.
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