Black America Breaking News for the African American Community
Related Articles
In the 1940s, Raymond Chandler, one of the most well-known detective-fiction writers, took his skills to Hollywood. He wrote for The Atlantic about his experience as a screenwriter, which he found thoroughly boring after only two years and stifling for writers’ talent, preferring instead the written page. His books would go on to inspire generations of crime enthusiasts, including the detective novelist Walter Mosley, who has worked to expand the genre to include the Black experience.
Every Friday in the Books Briefing, we thread together Atlantic stories on books that share similar ideas.
Know other book lovers who might like this guide? Forward them this email.
What We’re Reading
(EMMANUEL GUIMIER / NETFLIX)
The literary origins of Netflix’s latest smash hit
“As adaptations go, Lupin is close to perfect. Rather than directly translate the character to television, the writer George Kay imagines Lupin as the inspiration for a 21st-century con artist named Assane … whose history mirrors Lupin’s and whose balancing act as a moralistic thief is given extra depth by his race.”
📚 “The Queen’s Necklace,” by Maurice Leblanc
📚 Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar, by Maurice Leblanc
🎥 Lupin on Netflix
(MARINER BOOKS)
Inside the head of an aging serial killer
“The premise of a skilled, aging murderer unable to trust his own memories is a quirky spin on the moral quagmires that criminal antiheroes usually face.”
📚 Diary of a Murderer: And Other Stories, by Kim Young-ha
(THOMAS ALLEN)
Women are writing the best crime novels
“The female writers, for whatever reason (men?), don’t much believe in heroes, which makes their kind of storytelling perhaps a better fit for these cynical times. Their books are light on gunplay, heavy on emotional violence.”
📚 The Darkest Secret, by Alex Marwood
📚 Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s, edited by Sarah Weinman
📚 You Will Know Me, by Megan Abbott
📚 The Secret Place, by Tana French
📚 Woman With a Secret, by Sophie Hannah
📚 Hard Light, by Elizabeth Hand
📚 What Remains of Me, by Alison Gaylin
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Raymond Chandler on writers in Hollywood
“I am not interested in why the Hollywood system exists or persists … I am interested only in the fact that as a result of it there is no such thing as an art of the screenplay, and there never will be as long as the system lasts, for it is the essence of this system that it seeks to exploit a talent without permitting it the right to be a talent.”
🎥 Double Indemnity, screenplay by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder
🎥 The Blue Dahlia, screenplay by Raymond Chandler
(DOUG MCLEAN)
The two Raymond Chandler sentences that changed Walter Mosley’s life
“I was overcome by an image that I had seen many times but that I had never stopped to mark in my mind. It took Raymond Chandler to show me something that I already knew but had never been aware of.”
📚 The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler
📚 The Easy Rawlins mysteries, by Walter Mosley
About us: This week’s newsletter is written by Tori Latham. The book she’s deep into is The Overstory, by Richard Powers.
Comments, questions, typos? Reply to this email to reach the Books Briefing team.
Did you get this newsletter from a friend? Sign yourself up.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
Source link
