Eddie and Lena, but it seems more concrete ot true to his
character. Course,
since his wife in a sense sold herself for Eddie to make it
as a concert
pianist,
it seems natural that Clarice sells herself and pulls Eddie
out of his
depression
and back into society. Just a few thoughts about the book,
good stuff
though.
cheers,
Ziggy Nix
Jay Gertzman wrote:
> I'm writing about this David Goodis novel b/c it made
a deep impression
> on me. Goodis called it _Down There_, more apt than
Truffaut's
> alternative, _ Shoot the Piano Player_. Goodis
creates a character who
> is under sentence to death-in-life. Eddie's life
after his wife commits
> suicide is a flight from feeling. He blames himself
for Teresa's death
> because he was, for a few minutes, so shattered by
her confession that
> she had slept with his manager (he was at the time a
concert pianist)
> that he turned his back on her just long enough for
her to jump out of a
> window. As a piano player for the hard drinking
working class joes in
> Harriet's Hut, he strains to keep secret his famous,
and guilty, past,
> and to avoid the desire he feels for the waitress
Lena, who loves him
> and would sacrifice anything to be with him. He
desires to keep himself
> detached from her, so that he cannot cause her death,
as he feels he
> did Teresa's. Ironically, it is because he demands
she leave him when
> she drives him to his family home that she dies, for
upon returning, she
> comes in the line of fire from a hoodlum looking for
revenge on his
> brothers. So, at the end, he is back playing the
piano, having destroyed
> two lovers. One understands why he responded this
way. Confronted by
> events which would make strong men run from
humiliation and from the
> possibility of hurting women they love, Eddie turns
his back on his
> lovers: on the first because of a momentary sense of
betrayal and on the
> second to protect her from being hurt by contact with
a vile self-cursed
> jonah--himself.
>
> The setting and atmosphere are claustrophobic and
deathly cold--late
> November snows, skidding autos, dirty cellars, a
bare-knuckled fight to
> the death, poverty so deep even a meal in a all-night
diner is too
> expensive. The suffering and exile are self-willed:
"he wanted it." The
> book moved from suffering and betrayal to more
suffering and betrayal: a
> perfect spiral of despair. And so blind is Eddie that
he cannot
> recognize until it is too late the love either Teresa
or Lena have for
> him, or the real family feeling that the owner and
patrons of Harriet's
> Hut have for him (with Lena's help they save him from
a murder rap),
> much kinder than his real brothers. How could this be
autobiographical?
> Because Goodis seemed to be trapped in a spiral also,
like a moth to a
> flame. With a contract in Hollywood in the late
1940s, he rented a
> *sofa* in a friend's apartment, drove a very old car,
dyed his old suits
> black and had upscale *labels* posted in them, and
satisfied his
> compulsive sexual urges by having overweight
prostitutes verbally abuse
> him. From 1950 to 1967 (he died just months after his
parents) he lived
> with his parents in Philadelphia, writing paperback
novels featuring
> sensitive losers like Eddie, waif-like women who love
the protagonist
> but die trying to rinse the despair out of his soul,
and fat, coarse,
> domineering women whom the hero secretly craves. The
Goodis hero behaves
> mechanically, masochistically, trapped in the spiral.
"He wanted it."
>
> The experiences of Goodis' heros remind me of a
painting called "The
> Merry-Go-Round" by Mark Gertler, exhibited in 1917
(on line at on line
> at
<www.bton.ac.uk/design/MA.COURSE/LGertler.html>). It
depicts British
> soldiers and some women, all with rigid, ghastly
smiles, riding wooden
> horses and caught up in a mechanical frenzy of
movement with rather
> perverse sexual undertones. Gertler's friend D. H.
Lawrence praised the
> painting's "violent, mechanized rotation and complete
involution." He
> said of Gertler, "How superficial your human
relationships must be, and
> what a violent maelstrom of destruction and horror
your inner soul must
> be...." He warned his friend "Some of us must fling
ourselves in the
> fire of ultimate expression, like an immolation. . .
. But do try to
> save yourself .... You seem to be flying like a moth
into a fire." I
> think this would been good advice for Goodis as well.
Both men died
> young--Gertler committing suicide.
>
> --
>
>
*********************************************************
> Jay A. Gertzman Professor of English, Mansfield
U.
> 68 Brooklyn St. 717-662-4587
> Mansfield, PA 16933 FAX 717-662-4126
> jgertzma@epix.net
>
*********************************************************
>
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