NERVE MAGAZINE asked the question above recently.
Who wouldn't you kick out of your bed or house? Or, alternately, who do you identify with in fiction?
I guess an awful of of women would choose Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, but he seemed too snooty for me. So I am going with Travis McGee despite my problems with sea sickness. The boat doesn't have to leave the dock right?
24 comments:
But most of McGee's ladies move on or die, Patti. I'm going to pick Spenser for you.
I don't think I've ever seen books in that way. In terms of who is the most interesting sidekick, the one I might want to have at my side fighting the bad people, I'd choose Henry Standing Bear in the Walt Longmire series. He is one of the most memorable characters I've found in recently-written novels.
Well, Honor Harrington comes to mind (before she lost her arm and eye) - she's very intelligent, beautiful, and she was adopted by a Sphinxian treecat. On the other hand, she would be away from home an awful lot.
Susan, from the Spenser novels is a strong possibility. So are Tuppence (from the Tuppance and Tommy novels by Christie) and Amanda Cross's Kate Fansler
I'm not sure how many readers will recognize Liza Cody's Anna Lee, but I would pick her. She's smart and tough in the ways that count--courage, tenacity and endurance. The books date back to the 1980s.
Richard, you should be my wingman on my next night out, because we won't be competing for the same women. Susan Silverman would have me running the other way as fast as I could go.
(Of course, my last such night out was in 1979, if I remember correctly.)
Nobody choosing V,I Warshawski, huh?
Heck no, Patti. And I'm not picking Kinsey Millhone either. But then I'm not 90 years old. (*ca ching*)
What I want to know is if there are any guys brave (and foolhardy) enough to pick Lisbeth Salander.
George?
Jeff M
I'm going with Nora Charles.
Well, there's the girl from Sweet November. She'll give you a month of unbridled bliss and then die. But for the longer term Fu Manchu's daughter. Lovely, Asian, wealthy, and just enough evil to be interesting.
WV: Bless--That's kind of eerie.
I can't choose between Chicago P.D. Lt. Karrin Murphy in Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, and Elaine Mardell in Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder books.
I am also drawn to the toughness and strength of Case Hardin in Boston Teran's GOD IS A BULLET.
Have to read that GOD IS A BULLET.
Funny I read the Scudder books but I can't quite come up with her.
I think Nora would drink me under the table. Or Nick rather. Sweet November. Do you mean that Sandy Dennis movie? I am trying to place it.
Patti, Elaine Mardell winds up as Matthew Scudder's wife.
Elaine was what Matthew describes as "a sweet young call girl" when they met back when he was a cop. She reappears in his life in A TICKET TO THE BONEYARD as a killer tries to track down and kill all the women in Scudder's life.
And this is your choice of a soul mate? HA! You men live dangerously.
No fictional soulmates for me; I am more than satisfied with my real-life one. However, I wouldn't mind having the Empress of Blandings hanging around. I am partial to bacon.
Willie Garvin. And if you know the character I don't need to say anymore. But if you don't, I'll just say that he's got a wicked sense of humor.
I love your choice of Travis McGee!
Elaine and Scudder have been happily married for years now in the recent books, Patti. (Matthew strayed once but she did not.)
Before they married, Matthew wanted Elaine to quit the Life but was afraid to ask her to; Elaine had quietly already quit the Life but was afraid to tell Matthew for fear he would feel she was pressuring him to commit.
Elaine amusingly referred to their eventual double revelation as sickeningly "Gift Of The Magi"...
I like that she evolved; and so did he.
I need to revisit this series clearly.
Patti, it was a movie with Sandy Dennis, based on a book I read when I was young and impressionable. I think Sandy was a fetching young lady but from what I hear she disdained male companionship.
If we're taking about whom we identify with strongly, then Will Ladislaw in MIDDLEMARCH definitely comes to mind, as does Jack London's White Fang and Alice Pinkerton from PINKERTON'S SISTER.
If we're talking about whom we'd want in our house/bed... Give me Elizabeth Bennet over Darcy any day. Or Sally Seton when she's young, before she sells out and disconcerts Clarissa with her conservative matron-hood.
I'd forgotten that the 2001 version of SWEET NOVEMBER, with Charlize Theron, was a remake. You know Theron makes the LOVE STORYesque bathos a bit less off-putting, at least to me.
V.I. Warshawsky (or Sharon McCone) would be pretty good candidates if game. Salander is pretty kind to those she trusts, the lucky few.
Hm...I'm not sure ex-prostitutes are necessarily the most dangerous of spouses...assuming they aren't Aileen Wuornos (or even Theron as Wuornos).
Hm...it is awfully easy to favor comics and film and television characters, but among the literary folks, I'll suggest also the ridiculously supportive, loving, and bright (and young) womanfriend in Lewis Shiner's SLAM (perhaps she's aged along with the novel, and she'd be a bit more around my age now) or maybe the female lead in THE SUBTERRANEANS. Though unlike Jerry unattached, I do have a life full of some actual remarkable women, making the attempt to settle for a character a bit more difficult.
Identify with...hmm, yet again. The project manager in Algis Budrys's THE DEATH MACHINE, and if inclined to be kinder to myself, the protagonist in Damon Knight's "You're Another" (or if less kind to myself, the protagonist in Knight's "The Country of the Kind").
Unfortunately, a docked houseboat still rocks.
Oh goodness, if we were talking mystery/thrillers it has to be either Joe Pike or Elvis Cole. Or both. Ha!
There is one fortunate woman character who slept with both in the early books. She's the woman seen walking down an L.A. street with a big smile on her face. :)
But I'd settle for one or the other.....sigh!
If it's straight mystery than I admit I've always had a partiality for Sherlock Holmes, also the irascible Radcliffe Emerson in Elizabeth Peter's Peabody books.
In literature, I'd choose the Mr. Darcy in LOST IN AUSTEN. If I were allowed that preference. :)
Sure, Jeff, I'll go with Lisbeth Salander. Life with her would never be dull.
I like to think of myself as Stephanie Plum who's torn between Morelli (who calls her Cupcake) and Ranger (who calls her Doll).
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