Thank you for taking the time to write. I appreciate your comments.
First of all, may I post your letter in its entirety as a letter to the
editor? It does make several points that I should have made.
I should add that I admire Vachss and support his work. He's changed a
lot of people's lives for the better.
Second, thanks for pointing out my absent-minded error in title. I've
fixed online.
Lastly, I've read "Stella" and all his Burke novels and I have no
hesitation in classifying them as "good", actually "excellent". But I
don't think any of them quite rise to the standard of "great", as in
future classic that will be read 50 or 100 years from now--and I am
hoping maybe he has that in him, if he keeps fresh, and finds the right
subjects.
Regards,
Fred Zimmerman
> I just wanted to comment on your review of Andrew Vachss
> forthcoming Batman novel.
>
> It is not "Batman Forever." That is quite a disservice!
> ;) The title is "Batman: The Ultimate Evil." It has
> nothing to do with the movie currently in theatres.
>
> I have not read the book, but I have read the end of it,
> titled
> "Child Sex Tourism" which I wish you would mention.
> Vachss doesn't care at all about batman, he just wrote
> this book to try to reach a mass audience on the
> subject of child sex tourism in Thailand. It has
> become so ingrained in the lives of the people of
> Thailand that selling their children into prostitution
> has become a part of their culture. Children are
> bought, gang-raped until they get too old, say 9 or so,
> and then killed for fun. If you go to Thailand you can
> buy a child for whatever purpose you want him/her for.
> Rape it, murder it, you name it. And the Thai
> government supports this (though not officially to the
> rest of the world, how would it look?)
>
> The whole point of the novel is to try and make people
> aware of this evil and to try and get people to do
> something about it. Mr. Vachss hopes that people will
> quit buying any products made in Thailand and will push
> for a national boycott of the country. The only way we
> were able to make a difference in South Africa was to
> economically boycott them. That's what we need to do to
> Thailand to force a change.
>
> If nothing else, you should recommend that even if
> people don't read "Batman: The Ultimate Evil" that they
> at least read the essay at the end so that they know
> what horrors are being committed in Thailand.
>
> Hope you enjoy his next book, "Footsteps of the Hawk,"
> due out the end of this month.
>
> And as a fan of his work, I'd hate to see him waste his
> time writing about the murder trial of Susan Smith.
> Even though children were murdered, I don't think that
> really falls into his category of child crimes.
>
> - David Munier
>
> P.S. Since you mentioned that you think Mr. Vachss has
> a good book in his (and imply he hasn't written it
> yet), have you read
> "Shella" ?