There are a couple of interesting things about Robert B. Parker’s latest Amazon blog post. For one, he’s openly soliciting people to buy the movie option on his Sunny Randall novels (and offers the name and address of his agents)…which I find extraordinary for an author of his experience and success in both the publishing and TV business.
But the really amazing thing about his post is what it reveals about how prolific he is. His last Spenser came out in November. He has a Jesse Stone novel coming out in February, a young adult novel in April, a Sunny Randall in June, and Spenser in October. I figure he must be writing a book at least every eight to twelve weeks. That’s an amazing output…especially for a bestselling author in his late 60s (or is he in his 70s?) who really doesn’t need to work that hard any more.
True, but each book is only 20,000 words.
I heard him speak at a library event a couple of years ago. He writes two books at the same time, working on one in the morning, breaking for lunch, and then diving into the afternoon’s project. Makes my head hurt just thinking about juggling characters and plots like that, but it obviously works for him.
20,000 words? Weak.
Lee asked about Parker’s age. He is 74, turning 75 in September ’07.
They’re not 20,000 words. He’s joking. They’re probably 60k or so.
Parker is a helluva phenomenon… Every 3 or 4 months, like clockwork, the galley of his next book will show up on my doorstep. As often as not I don’t read them, but when I do (usually the Spenser novels), I’m reminded of how good he is at what he does.
Most writers would be hard-pressed to write 4 crappy books a year. But Parker regularly writes 3 or 4 that are, at the least, halfway decent, and sometimes better than that.
Remarkable.
I read or listen to everything he writes. I have been listening to APPALOOSA on my iPod over the last couple of days while I exercise and I have really been enjoying it (I also liked GUNMAN’S RHAPSODY and DOUBLE PLAY at lot). But his last few Spenser Books have been disappointments…and his Jesse Stone/Sunny Randall team-up was simply terrible.
Parker’s blog…kind of reminds me of…Larry King’s old column…in USA Today…
Over the 30-40 years Parker has been writing, I think the quality of his work has been extraordinary. Is it a little uneven? Well, if you’re talking 50 books or so, then uneven at times is expected, I would think.
I’ve generally liked or even loved his books and occasionally they leave me a little cold. In the case of “Blue Screen,” the last Sunny Randall novel, I’m with Lee, I hated it. It’s the only novel of Parker’s that I’ve hated. I think it was misguided and ridiculous, and I thought both Jesse and Sunny were immature and rather stupid.
From time to time, the books are quite good until you think a bit more about them. I rather enjoyed “Potshot” until you realize that the murderer came all the way from Arizona to Boston to hire a PI to investigate the murder of her husband. What? Yeah, that makes no sense. It’s like Parker forgot who hired Spenser by the time he got to the end of the book. Weird.
Of course I was joking about his books being 20,000 words. But they are short and require a lot of padding to make them thick enough to appeal to a buyer’s eye–large margins, lots of room between the lines (called “leaing” in the trade), blank pages. I once joked to a friend that if they did a book on tape for one of his novels the reader would have to speak very slowly. A couple of years later I heard a bit of one–and the reader spoke very slowly.
Kidding aside, I like his work, even if his westerns remind me of Spenser in spurs.
Robert Parker’s novels are in the 50,000 word range and have always been in that range. That used to be the normal size for a good paperback novel, before the books began bloating up to the 100,000-130,000 word range.
I like Parker for that reason — his novels can be read in an afternoon.
I noticed that no matter how many words my DM and MONK books are (usually 65,000-80,000 words), they are always basically the same number of pages — they simply adjust the type size. I’m reading the galleys for THE LAST WORD now and the type is almost microscopic.
When I first began writing westerns, publishers wanted 55,000 to 60,000-word novels. Later they wanted 80,000-word novels. Then western fiction collapsed. When I edited them for Walker and Company, my employer wanted 60,000-word novels. The old hands sent me 50,000 regardless, which made me grumpy because they were not meeting contract length, but in fact the shorter novels were better. I’ve written sixty, most of them around 100,000, and I am getting tired.
Parker’s Spenser novels would be longer if he had a little character growth in them and if Hawk wasn’t monosyllabic. Or if, finally, there was a really long chapter in each where Hawk tortures Susan. Just, you know, my take.
Considering that Spenser is now pushing 80 (remember, he started out as a Korea War vet), if he had any growth thoughout the series he’d be dead by now!
In the first book (1973), Spenser says he is 37. So he’d be 70 by now. I understand the need to freeze Spenser’s age the longer the series goes, but doing so defeats any attempt to ground him in historical context. Maybe Spenser has always been larger-than-life, but the contextual details in the early books made him more real to me.
Nero Wolfe and Archie never aged, either…and yet still talked about current events (Nazis, commies, Nixon, etc.)
I see your point, Lee, but I guess the difference is Archie and Wolfe never aged; Spenser aged realistically in the beginning and then ground to a halt. While Spenser occasionally mentions what year it is, he doesn’t address many current events at all. I’m still waiting to hear his thoughts on the Red Sox 2004 World Series championship.
Doesn’t it say in one of the early books that Spenser fought in the Korean War? Maybe I’m misremembering, but I thought it did. If so, it’s doubtful he was born in 1936 (assuming we can use the date of the book for the date of the story).
Multiple sources cite Spenser as saying he served in the Korean war when he was 18. This would mean he was 18 between 1950-53. In turn, if he’s 37 in THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT, the events of that book take place between 1969-72.
I recall that Parker began writing GODWULF in ’71, so the math works out. On the whole, though, you’re right, David. We can’t use the dates of the books as the dates of the stories. I was estimating Spenser’s age if he had moved through real time.
You’re right, there’s no reason to assume the book takes place in the year it was published.
Lee brought up Nero Wolfe… I recently re-read a handful of the Stout books and I have to say, they’re still damn good, and hold up quite well. Good storytelling is timeless.
I think you guys are trying to apply consistency where it doesn’t occur. The novels make reference to contemporary things–for instance, Prince not calling himself Prince anymore (and who gives a fuck).
It’s a conceit. Spenser’s clearly not 70, and the books clearly do take place in or around the year of publication.
Agreed, Parker isn’t consistent. In fact, I don’t know that Spenser’s history holds up beyond the first book. I’m just saying I wish he were more consistent. He does occasionally mention contemporary trivia, but he also fudges a lot in order to muddy Spenser’s age.