I was thinking the same thing. There are definite noir overtones
to "Native Son" but it's far from a wrongly accused story -- unless you
take the white anarchist character who's originally accused of the
crime (and is actually, intentionally I think, the most obviously
sympathetic character in the book.
Incidentally, this reminds me that last year's Booker Prize winning
novel, "White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga, basically (by the author's own
statement) takes the basic plot of "Native Son" and sets it in
contemporary India, with a low-caste rural man in the chauffeur role.
I'd definitely say the book qualifies as noir -- and based on this
genealogy is at least an indirect ancestor of Woolrich -- and it's a
tight crime novel in its own right, though not marketed as such, at
least in the US.
-Carrie
--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Patrick King <abrasax93@...> wrote:
>
> But what's with the "wrongly accused of murder" bit? As I recall the
murder of the girl and the incineration of her body was rather graphic.
That it was an accident or misunderstanding does not excuse his
behavior. He was a victim of a number of injustices, but he certainly
committed the crime.
>
> Patrick King
>
>
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