Booze and the Private Eye: Alcohol in the Hard-Boiled Novel by Rita Elizabeth Rippetoe

Author:Rita Elizabeth Rippetoe [Rita Elizabeth Rippetoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-09-22T09:36:00+00:00

"A month ago I wouldn't have given a hoot. Hell, I would have welcomed the big out. Then you go and show up all blown to pieces and I take the challenge and make it real again, suddenly turning into a doctor who pulled off some kind of a modern miracle...."

"Now you're ... sober?"

"Permanently" [14-15].

Readers will note the similarity to Hammer's immediate return to sobriety in The Girl Hunters once he learns that Velda is alive. Also like Hammer, Dr. Morgan is able to resume drinking in moderation. He drinks one or two light beers at a sitting and shows no tendency to return to out-of-control drinking. Not coincidentally, these beers are Miller Lite, the brand for which Spillane made commercials.

Hammer, in the meantime, is unable to drink at all since his digestive tract has been severely damaged by the bullet wounds. Morgan makes it clear that Hammer's recovery is anything but complete, that physical or emotional strain can still kill him. At the beginning of his recovery even a full cup of coffee is too much to stomach. Needless to say, given the conventions of the action hero, Hammer pushes the limits of his endurance as he tries to find out who was behind the double-cross that led to the Mafia shoot-out. But he does obey the doctor's order to avoid alcohol, at least until his meeting with Don Ponti. He is offered and accepts a Canadian Club and ginger ale, which he sips as they talk. Like the mobsters in Chandler's works, Don Ponti freely violates the laws of hospitality as, despite the shared drink, he orders Hammer killed after he leaves the house. However, we are not particularly struck by this betrayal since Hammer's history tells us that he is equally ruthless in killing those who have become a threat, regardless of previous social interaction.

Spillane's treatment of alcohol consumption in the Mike Hammer series is not as extensive or sophisticated as that of Chandler, nor as honest as the early Hammett. As noted above, the extent of Hammer's drinking in I, the Jury stretches the reader's credulity yet is never admitted to be excessive by the narrator-protagonist. We are simply expected to accept that an afternoon spent downing highballs can culminate in brilliant detective work as soon as the vital clue is rediscovered while groping for a cigarette. We are apparently not expected to suspect that the detective's beer and highball consumption may have caused him to forget the evidence in the first place. Hammer's alcohol consumption declines in later novels, although the critics fail to recognize this decline, treating Hammer as a relatively unchanging character who can be discussed as though each volume in the series follows exactly the same pattern. By contemporary standards Hammer's drinking remains excessive, at least on occasion, yet Spillane's only concessions to the changes in national drinking habits during his and his protagonist's career is the introduction of light beer. This denial of the negative consequences of heavy alcohol use is

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