What starts off as a kind of tired by-the-numbers noir
plot--lovers conspiring to kill an old man for his money,
turns into something very entertaining where just about
everything that can go wrong does-- and the main protagonist,
Jack, knows it's all going wrong but is helpless to stop it.
This was my first exposure to Gil Brewer, and I almost put
the book down several times before the murder happened--
mostly because the writing seemed flat and uninspired. I
stuck with it more out of curiosity whether it went anywhere.
Then a funny thing happened once the murders started--the
writing got crisper and truly inspired, reaching a David
Goodis-type level. I don't know whether Brewer was bored with
the initial perfunctory story setup--but to me it was night
and day difference between the quality of the writing.
There's a scene after the murder where Jack is visited and to
some degree tormented by a doctor who sees through his guilt,
and the coolness and skill of the the writing matches
anything of Goodis's that I've read. The second half of this
book is really quite something--what's supposed to be an easy
murder turns into something nightmarish, and there's a lot of
craziness that follows. I'd almost recommend skipping the
first 90 or so pages, but what follows comes close to
matching Jim Thompson's Savage Night and Hell of a Woman in
psychotic craziness. anyway, I'll be reading more Brewer
after this.
--Dave Z.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 12 May 2007 EDT