The name Cain keeps coming up -- he of Double Indemnity --
but my favorite Noir has to be by another Cain: Paul Cain who
wrote Fast One. At the end I thought, "My God, all that to
this end?!" Good stuff.
Best Regards, Erick
> ----------
> From: George Pelecanos
> Reply To:
rara-avis@icomm.ca
> Sent: Friday, January 25, 2002 12:57 PM
> To: rara-avis
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: mccoy, goodis
>
> What's most interesting about KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE
is McCoy's
> presentation
> of the protagonist, a criminal with a privileged
background who makes no
> excuses for who he is.
>
> Page 235 of my Midnight Classic edition:
>
> "I didn't grow up in the slums with a drunk for a
father and whore for a
> mother and come into crime that way. I hate society,
too, but I don't
> hate
> it because it mistreated me and warped my soul.
Every other criminal I
> know--who's engaged in violent crime--is a two-bit
coward who blames his
> career on society. I need no apologist or crusader
to finally hold my
> lifeless body up to the world and shout for them to
come and observe what
> they have wrought. Do you know one of the first
things I'm going to do
> when
> I get some money? I'm going to have Cartier make me
a little solid gold
> thing for my wrist, you know, that identification
thing the army guys
> wear,
> on a solid gold chain and do you know what I'm going
to have inscribed on
> it? Just this: 'Use me not as a preachment in your
literature and your
> movies. This I have wrought, I and I
alone'."
>
> Brilliant.
>
> THE BURGLAR, by David Goodis, is my favorite noir
novel, bar none. The
> last
> chapter is both shocking and beautiful. Trust me,
you will never forget
> this book.
>
> Geoffrey O'Brien on Goodis:
>
> "Nothing so downbeat, so wedded to the reiteration
of personal and social
> failure, would be likely to find a mass market
publisher at present. The
> absolutely personal voice of David Goodis seems
almost to have escaped by
> accident. It emanated from the heart of an efficient
entertainment
> industry, startlingly, like the wail of an
outcast."
>
> George Pelecanos
>
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