Pierre Lemaitre: crime, devastation and other delicacies from the dictionary of black novels

Crime, violence, devastation. Murder, social corruption and fangs on the mirror bar counter.Deadly women, corrupt cops, Nordic and existential anguish. Ah: sometimes deacons. Detective, more drink, more deadly women, death, distortion, blood and destruction.And more death.

Who can resist such a combo? Of course, there is no one in the right mind.The French writer Pierre Lemaitre, who created the commander of the police brigade Camille Verhoven, who will now be a researcher in several works, has done the work of expressing his love for the black genre, noir , in his latest book The Passionate Dictionary (Salamander) of Noir. It is an honor for all fans of the police, the most recent fans and fans of the founding father and mother. A dictionary that is not complete though (but what is the classification of genres?) He has no falsehood about objectivity, but rather his methods are arbitrary and attractive. Is there blood on those five hundred pages? It is not worth saying that they drip red liquid, but it is quite possible to make sure that they have as much blood as is strictly required by the rules of noir.

We must place ourselves at the beginning of the genre.The direct good deeds of crime fiction appeared in a difficult time of the mid-19th century, when capitalism strengthened its role in the world with achievements and regrets, and at the same time questioned the economic and social order. In Philadelphia in 1841, the great Edgar Allan Poe was set in Paris, where the mother and daughter of Paris seemed to have died inside an apartment with doors locked in a “closed room” (which later became a sub-genre) The crime of Rue Morgue, a mystery story Write.Deceased: He died violently. Theories and theories were founded to solve the brutal murder, but only analytical detective Auguste C. Dupin was able to solve the case and bring about a broken order of reasoning. As in the case of natural society.There is no author's entry, so look for an item with a story name (108 pages) to learn more, but that doesn't have to! His conclusions are enough. “This short story contains almost everything that investigative crime novels will exploit in the coming decades.”

The first step will culminate with Sherlock Holmes, his violin and the cocaine he consumes. It was created by the monarch of the British police kingdom while solving a case devised by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who does not have his own entry in this dictionary) or with detective Hercules Poirot. Mrs. Agatha Christie, however, as the century progresses, the expression of calling a policeman who deducts who the offender would not be enough) or a logical brain that would help restore lost order... Lemaitre explains very well in an entry titled “Head and Ball” that alludes to the British police officers quoted above and the Americans who appeared around the Great Depression of 1929.

Raymond Chandler, one of the noir gods, summarizes the topic as follows: “The former calls for the first floor view of the Greythorpe Mansion, with the office, the weapons room, the main hall, the staircase and the corridor, leading to an ominous room where the deacon illuminates Georgian silver with his lips. Quietly listening to the murmur of ruin. The latter thinks that the shortest distance between the two points is the distance that separates the blonde from the bed.”

He quotes Jean-Patrick Manchette from the dictionary. “Hercules Powaro on one side, Bogart: Head and Ball on the other”. So they are separated into distant cousins, but finally the cousins are separated into criminal novels of deductive logical quest for murderers and black crime novels written in a world where economic and social crises represent the background of capitalist society. A novel that leads to a crimeThe investigation work should be a capricious detective (or more capricious police) in a dark environment surrounded by the underworld, organized crime, corrupt police officers, millionaires who beat men by delegating underground businesses, and of course, deadly women marking the horizon of the Crusaders. The detective charges a fixed fee per week and a fee per diem.

It is an aside to continue reading a dictionary that will surely be familiar to readers in Latin America. The writer and literary critic Carlos Gamerro, in the Decalogue of the Argentine Black Police Officer, suggests how noir should work in the following regions:

“1. The crime was committed by the police.

2. If it is committed by a private security officer or an ordinary criminal, it must be ordered or with permission from the police.

3. The purpose of the police investigation is to hide the truth.

4. The task of the Ministry of Justice is to cover up the police.

5. Clues and material signs can never be trusted. The police arrived first.Therefore, there is no empirical basis for the deduction.

6. Often, the identity of the murderer is known from the beginning, and the identity of the victim must be verified. Unlike the British police, Argentina usually begins with the disappearance of the corpse.

7. The main suspect (in the case of police) is the victim.

8. Everyone who is charged by the police is innocent.

9. Private detective is inevitably a former police officer or a former service. Therefore, the investigation can only be carried out by journalists or individuals.

10. The purpose of this investigation may be to reach the truth and, at best, to disclose it. It's about never getting justice.”

In addition to being blunt, it seems appropriate for police officers in this country. Gamerro points out that the journalist who inspires the investigator of a black Argentine police officer is Rodolfo Walsh, who gives voice and name to the gun of José León Suárez, who reorganizes the murder of the country and reaches the truth. The prologue of his operational massacre. The end of the digression.

In the entry of the most modern noir, the dictionary is that it gives the reader a space on a roller coaster of crimes and a cart of investigations. It was noted that Chandler is one of the gods of the genre.Lemaitre says: “His novel looks like a brawl with interspersed fights (...) If it is perfect, we may not talk about it anymore. What he achieved is even more interesting” and explains his researcher, the legendary detective Philip Marlowe, who was born in 1939 with an eternal dream. “A sentimental and alcoholic cowboy who is obsessed with his moral code and constantly clashes with criminals, wicked and female destinies,” he explains. With what Humphrey Bogart will play, film adaptations other than director Howard Hawks and William Faulkner, and who wears a coat and hat sitting at a bar counter will last forever.

A little earlier than Chandler, Daciel Hammett laid the foundation for a black American policeman. Although Hammet himself was a detective of a well-known investigative agency, he had to give up his job due to health problems. Already in the 1920s he tried to return to that job, but when he returned he learned that the agency had become a militant unit for a large businessman who hired employees to resolve union disputes. Hammett (as you can see from the dictionary) to his partner Lillian Helman. I will tell you that he was offered 5 thousand dollars to kill the won. I refused, and I had no choice but to write.

Pulp was a novel or a long story written by writers who created a typewriter equivalent to the Fordist production line. It depicts the dirty reality of the United States, where all business is crossed by the underworld and the pulse of society is unequal. He published Red Harvest, a novel set in a mining town called Personville, in 1929, and the novel Red Harvest, set in a mining town called Personville, and residents call it Poisonville (Poisonville) (town poison). “By choosing the urban environment, Dashiell Hammett contributes to establishing the basic rules for the beginning of the United States.Noir: Black is the city itself, fascinating, dysfunctional, and often goes up to the category of guilty.” The main detective is an agent of the continent, and will later be known to the Altar of Noir under the name Sam Spade from Falcon in Malta. The black novel is not about regaining order beyond the results of the investigation, but dirty in which the protagonist moves. While he comes to speak reality, the ending should not be relieved. Well, his life Since adolescence, an alcoholic, depressed and with negative health signs, he shows that he is moving away from writing and leading not to political commitment, but to an organization closely related to the Communist Party of the United States in McCarthy. In 1951, he was tried for belonging to a disruptive organization (called the Civil Rights Congress), sentenced to imprisonment, and incorporated into Hollywood's “black list”. The U.S. Treasury seized copyrights.He died in 1961.

At one point, two lines were built in Noir with Chandler with a brilliant writer and a writer with Hammet.Contemporary writer (great writer) James Ellroy, quoted in the dictionary, says: “The difference between Hammett and Chandler is that the former is afraid to look like a character, and the latter will like it. It can be a controversial controversy, but it certainly exists.Lemaitre writes about the first novel with loving admiration and says: “I thought a lot about what Hammet proposed, and I practiced it both in crime and in historical novels.” Then review some points about the writer's method. His name is written at the entrance.

And contemporaries? You don't have to be impatient. Everything comes. Entries for Ellroy are spectacular because they dazzle with the author's work, but they describe it as follows: “That person annoys me because of his novel and makes me angry...”. Because his novel is wonderful! Eloy is a super-right citizen, but. Lamaitre says: “In Trump's family photo, Eloy will be on the right side of Clint Eastwood,” the play is wonderful. La Dalia Negra, LA Confidential, America is an example of how to breathe new life into a city like Los Angeles, whose text scene highlights the darkness nesting under the sun; Lemaitre loves and hates him; of course, it often happens in good families.

More contemporaries? Lemaitre writes in Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad explains the series brilliantly, and at the same time points out why it is the compliment of a capitalist who achieved success through criminal acts and succeeded in an individualistic way. A few years ago he showed it as dangerous in a successful production, but he finally portrayed businessmen of meticulous and civil figures (it is necessary to remember the owner of Los Pollos Hermanos) by competition. An interesting reading of this pop culture phenomenon he faces.

More? Lemaitre does not hesitate to get tired and sleep caused by the Nordic police. In fact, it is more abundant than ants. The entry “Nordic Noir” begins as follows: “I have suffered Scandinavian noir (and Northern Europe in general) because it does not make Iceland and Finland ugly. To say that these authors have made our lives bitter is rarely said. To me, if you read the 20 pages of Jo Nesbo, you left the drag, the truth” Okay, ladies and gentlemen, you have to passionately like the black novel dictionary. (He dedicates three or four entries to the Nordic, each of which is more exquisite than the last).

Initially, it was pointed out. It is a subjective random dictionary with no way.And it all works out for him.Writers in Spanish (no Argentina or Argentina), around here are Padura, Paco Ignacio Taibo, Luis Sepulveda Akula.It is a grand entry dedicated to the amazing Hannibal Lecter, who was the first novel before the film. And as a writer who knows for sure those who are well versed in the genre but who are not, we go in to read and know their work. It is an outline that brings happiness to the reader.And perhaps he is a Danish writer Lemaitre You will get the amount of blood you missed when you meet him and tie him up. Will it be fair or not? This is a topic that needs to be discussed. Lemaitre will surely raise his experience for discussion in the entries of the next edition of his dictionary.

Continue reading