The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction

by Patrick Anderson

Around 1930, Dashiell Hammett invented the American crime novel, and Raymond Chandler built on Hammett's work. Their hard-boiled tradition prevailed for several decades, but by the 1970s the crime... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345481232
• ISBN13: 9780345481238
• Release Date: February 2007
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Thrillers top best seller lists

Sometime novelist and Washington Post book reviewer traces the history and state of "Thrillers"--the crime, spy, and legal novels that dominate the fiction bestseller lists these days (by Anderson's count, 40% of the 130 novels that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2005). Anderson is a reviewer, not a historian, so the focus is on current writers, their backgrounds, their inspirations, and their stories ("stand-alones" or series). It is interesting how late in life many of even the most successful writers started their writing careers, or progressed within them far enough to quit their day jobs. Also prominent in Anderson's account, as in the books he reviews and describes, is a rising level of violence, described and defined as "realism" to a point where Anderson wonder's how much is realistic and how much readers can stand. As he points out about several authors, their "realism" limits their readership--although after reading the sickening descriptions of Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lector novels (and the popular movies based on them) it is hard to think of their extreme popularity as being in any way self-limiting. Anderson never questions the psyche of a readership that can tolerate and apparently relish such extreme sadism. Still, I was intrigued by some authors and books Anderson described (among them William Lashner, Daniel Silva, and Michael Connelly), so I have noted and will sample their works, with reviews pending, of course.

An appreciation of the thriller

Mainstream fiction is often thought of as being non-genre, that is, it may not be particularly literary, but it also isn't pigeonholed into any particular category. Really, though, like a real river system, the main stream should be the biggest particular branch. The argument made in Patrick Anderson's The Triumph of the Thriller is that the thriller is the new mainstream. The basis for Anderson's idea is based on sheer numbers: in recent years, thrillers have occupied much of the best-sellers list. Of course, this would not mean that thrillers are the best fiction (if popularity equaled quality, then McDonalds would sell the world's best food), but it also doesn't mean that thrillers do not have the potential to be as good as anything else. In fact, some of the novels that Anderson cites can arguably be considered classics of literature. What, however, is a thriller? The definition seems to elude Anderson, which may be an indication as to how difficult it can be to really to define it (or any genre). For the most part, it seems equivalent to a mystery, but not all mysteries really apply. Suspense seems to be bigger element, though it has to take place in the "real" world; science fiction, supernatural horror and fantasy can have action and suspense, but don't fit in Anderson's niche. Though The Triumph of the Thriller seems at first to be a study of the development of this genre, it really is more of an overview of the writers who are most prominent in the field. After a couple introductory chapters of historical precursors to the modern thriller, Anderson discusses a lot of different writers, often admiringly, but also critically. Of course, this means there is a lot of opinion and you will not agree with everything he says; I certainly didn't, but I found there was a lot of common ground. And, since this is an overview, you'll find plenty of omissions. In many books that provide overviews of book or movie genres, I find that the authors misstate key plot points. Anderson, however, appears to be the rare one who hasn't (at least I didn't catch any errors). Well-written and informative, The Triumph of the Thriller makes it clear that reading thrillers can be a worthwhile experience.

Changing Times

Beyond a doubt, the best seller lists of today bear little resemblance to best seller lists of the '50s and '60s that were dominated by novels about movie stars, sex, money and the wanton lifestyles of those who had more money than sense. Those lists were dominated by writers like Harold Robbins, Irving Stone, Jacqueline Susann, Herman Wouk and James Michener. According to Anderson, it was the Kennedy assassination in 1963, the "end of innocence for a generation," that made possible a move by the thriller genre to near domination of today's best seller lists. The Triumph of the Thriller is perfect for those readers not familiar with the thriller genre because Anderson provides its history beginning with what he considers to be the "first great crime thriller," Mario Puzo's The Godfather, right up to the best thriller fiction being written today. Along the way he gives credit to those who most influenced today's thriller writers, starting with Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett, moving on to Mickey Spillane, John D. MacDonald, Ed McBain, Ross MacDonald and Charles Williford, and finishing with today's class. Anderson finds that the "triumph of the thriller reached a tipping point in 1981" when, for the first time, four thrillers were on the list of the top 15 sellers for the year. Along the way, there were some breakthrough books that made it all possible: Deliverance by James Dickey, First Blood by David Morrell, Six Days of the Condor by James Grady, Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone, The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon and The First Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders, among them. My "To Be Read List" has grown by at least three dozen books as a result of chapters in which Anderson discusses the best writers and books in the several sub-genres included under the thriller umbrella. There are chapters titled: "Dangerous Women," "Lawyers at Large," "Spy Masters" and "Literary Thrillers," all of which, added books and writers to my list for future reading. But, I have to admit that it was even more fun to read what Anderson had to say about certain authors that I've learned to avoid over the last few years. He shows them no mercy. As he says, "They deal in clichés, stereotypes, cheap thrills, and ridiculous plots. Some of them can't help it - that's how their minds work - but others deliberately dumb down their work because a lot of money is made that way." Chief among the culprits? Let's start with James Patterson whom Anderson calls "a writer to avoid at all costs" and whose book The Beach House "unfolds like an unspeakably dumb comic book" that "no one with even a minimal appreciation of good writing could possibly read for pleasure." Anderson believes that Patterson has set the standard for bad writing to such a degree that he even accuses David Baldacci with his Hour Game of having "entered the James Patterson Really Bad Thriller Sweepstakes." Anderson goes on to skewer Patricia Cornwell (Trace), David Lindsey (The Face of

The Triumph of the Thriller

I never paid much attention to the "thriller" genre, although I had read a few books that Mr. Anderson writes about. Many of us book lovers have read an Agatha Christie or a Sherlock Holmes story. But in "The Triumph of the Thriller," Patrick Anderson gives us the history of the thriller how it has evolved and what's being written now; from the earliest Edgar Allen Poe and A. C. Doyle stories - through the writings of Chandler and Cain - to present day authors such as Karin Slaughter, Michael Connelly and Peter Abrahams, among many others. After readng Pat Anderson's book, I immediately ordered a bunch of books by his recommended authors and I haven't been disappointed! It was a great read!

Good survey / interesting suggestions

Anderson reviews a range of thrillers. It's a personal view, and you can debate his definition of "thriller". However, if you don't expect a definitive survey, then you should enjoy his views, and find some interesting suggestions for your own reading. My tastes aren't too different from Anderson's, so I was pleased that, for example, he identified Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River" as a great novel. I was also interested in the backgound biographical information about the novelists, and the explanations about how the business works (Anderson is a novelist himself). It's fun to see who is missing. I would have included the Barry Eisner Rain novels, and the superb John Harvey and Michael Dibdin among the Brits. The book doesn't include a European / Scandinavian section, which is a shame when writers like Karen Fossum are doing great work.