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Title: Publish or perish
Review: Which is the presumed motive for this extended revisitation of an extensively analyzed subject. This book is bizarrely organized which somewhat masks the fact that it has almost nothing new to say. Odd comments aside ("...the casual amorality of Chandlerian violence"?!?), the text is little more than a series of introductory remarks with thumbnail bios of hardboiled writers and auteurist asides that cobble together plot summaries and allusions to the writings of other critics. Chapter 4 starts off with promise but fizzles. The extended closing comments on the French New Wave, the epilog, and the needlessly repeated selected credits are pure filler.
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