Abstract

If fiction has a role to play, not in our fantasies or escapist dreams, not as just addictive trash but as conceptual fodder, then Paretsky has pulled a fast one by creating Warshawski, the kinda hopeless, but astoundingly resourceful Italian American female private detective. A been-around feminist, she does what she can, and the figure of Vic serves as a witty and contemporary vehicle for Paretsky's perspective. This perspective relocates the tunnel vision(s) within the novel to particular characters, and in so doing creates a cleverly disguised commentary on politics and the personal. The great irony of Tunnel Vision is its capacity to lead one through a very precise tunnel, and implicate, not simultaneously, but in conclusion, its conditions of possibility.

How to Cite:

Bradshaw, L., (1994) “Writing (and) crime tunnel vision : a V.I. Warshawski novel”, Law Text Culture 1(1), 151-153.