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beloved. "Dalesia grinned. 'I bet he learned a lesson from it.' 'Yeah.' McWhitney nodded. 'He learned the harp.'" -Richard Stark, Nobody Runs Forever iamdavidbrothers.com
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Bhermanos.bsky.social

this is one of my favorite elements of crime fiction, by the way. the desperation of strong men. Richard Stark's Parker books are full of these dudes, and then they meet Parker. Stark actually spells out the deal for one in Plunder Squad, and then makes a gag of another tough guy situation too:

The general trend of it was that he seemed to be trying to describe to Parker, or maybe to himself, his need to be tough, to be more masculine than anybody else. He never said so straight out, but all of the explanations and reminiscences seemed to be on that same theme.
Nobody reacted. His remark just sat there, being ignored by everybody, even Trooper Jarvis. Slowly, the anonymous trooper blushed. He blinked, he stared defiantly out the window, he pretended he wasn’t blushing, he even bit the insides of his cheeks to make it stop, but he was blushing.
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Bhermanos.bsky.social

on a similar note, Richard Stark's Butcher's Moon (the Parker "ending") has a very sweet moment with an old couple that plays with traditional gender roles too. The old man wants to be tough for his wife, and finds himself carried by her instead. Extremely good novel

“I'm fine,” he said, and though it hurt like fury, he managed to walk without a limp and to restrain himself from bending down to rub it. He would not display weakness in front of these men. Nor, under the circumstances, in front of Maureen. Patting her hand on his forearm, he whispered, “I'm sorry, dear.” “Don't be silly.” She squeezed his forearm, and he felt her smiling at him. “This is just an adventure, that's all,” she said. An adventure. I am fifty-seven, he told her in his mind, and you are fifty-four. We have no need for adventure. But he didn't say anything aloud. And her calm bravery carried him through the house and out the door, the two gunmen following silently in their wake.
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brothers.
@hermanos.bsky.social
beloved. "Dalesia grinned. 'I bet he learned a lesson from it.' 'Yeah.' McWhitney nodded. 'He learned the harp.'" -Richard Stark, Nobody Runs Forever iamdavidbrothers.com
2.9k followers286 following4.7k posts
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