All of the books and articles I have read regarding the craft of writing advise reading a lot and reading varied things. With that in mind, I picked up a few of Arthur Hailey's novels. Mr. Hailey has sold over 170 million books and was published in over forty languages, so he must have something worthwhile to say, right?
I remember seeing Airport around the house when I was a kid and I even seem to recall reading it at some point, although I couldn't tell you plot line or details. I distinctly remember reading Wheels as a teen-ager although again, I couldn't recall details.
I picked up Detective, Wheels, Airport and Hotel from the library. I've finished Detective (okay, I lied, I have two or three chapters left and I don't really need to read them to know the outcome.) I'm working on Wheels.
Some observations about Detective, Wheels, and Mr. Hailey's technique in general:
Detective was copyrighted 1997. It makes painful attempts to be politically correct regarding gender and race. It's embarrassing and obvious. The dialog is stilted and unnatural. Who says things like, "Have you any more information?" This seems to be common throughout Mr. Hailey's works. One of the characters in Detective, a notable "bad guy" hangs out with criminals at a "rough" bar called the "Brass Doubloon". Completely unlikely. Might as well have called it the Pink Petticoat.
Wheels, not surprisingly, tells the story of how a car comes into being at the Big Three. It is set in Detroit and copyrighted 1971. It too contains cumbersome dialog. Contrary to the attitude adopted in Detective, during the writing of Wheels Mr. Hailey had yet to embrace the notion of women in the workforce. Some characters in Wheels are described as "girl technicians" and "girl executives." I am assuming that Mr. Hailey was not referring to precocious twelve year old girls engaged in child labor and even for 1971, it was a poor choice of phrase.
Mr. Hailey was dismissed by many critics as writing formulated works with multiple albeit thin plot lines to mask his lack of literary skill. He routinely spent at least a year researching whatever industry he planned on writing about. He spent the next six months organizing and reviewing his notes. It then required at least a year to eighteen months worth of work to complete the novel. I can't say I disagree completely with his critics assessments. I find his dialog pretty funny, though not intentional on his part. He does tell a good story, not great, won't keep you up until you're done, but good. He could easily have cut over half the finished product to achieve the same effect.
Perhaps he was being paid by the page?
At any rate, Mr. Hailey, I think, demonstrates how far bestselling fiction and fiction in general has come in the past thirty years.
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