I recently read Quentin Tarantino’s book Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a novelization of his 2019 film Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood (the ellipses are missing from the title of the book). I can’t tell you how it ranks against other crime novels of 2021 because I haven’t read any yet. But a more important question is how it ranks against the crime novels of 1975. In February of this year, I published an essay here on Substack in which I argued that 1975 was the greatest year ever for crime fiction. And I believe that Tarantino intends for us to treat his novel as though it were an artifact from that year. Why? Let’s look at the clues.
THE LAST GREAT CRIME NOVEL OF 1975
THE LAST GREAT CRIME NOVEL OF 1975
THE LAST GREAT CRIME NOVEL OF 1975
I recently read Quentin Tarantino’s book Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a novelization of his 2019 film Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood (the ellipses are missing from the title of the book). I can’t tell you how it ranks against other crime novels of 2021 because I haven’t read any yet. But a more important question is how it ranks against the crime novels of 1975. In February of this year, I published an essay here on Substack in which I argued that 1975 was the greatest year ever for crime fiction. And I believe that Tarantino intends for us to treat his novel as though it were an artifact from that year. Why? Let’s look at the clues.