William Denton (buff@pobox.com)
Sun, 18 Jul 1999 22:19:52 -0400 (EDT)
I thought I'd get things back on topic by going back to this
book. Surely some other people have read it and have
something to say?
I was surprised by how short it is. It can easily be read in
one short, depressing sitting. The book is a grim one. Boy
with no money, who wants to be a director, meets girl who
wants to be dead. Nothing much good has happened to either of
them, and nothing good does happen before the book ends. They
sign up for a dance marathon and go for 45 days, keeping in
motion 50 minutes of every hour, and once a day having to
suffer a short race around the floor. It's pretty much a
succession of events going from bad to worse that end up with
boy putting girl out of her misery, by shooting her at her
request. (Hence the title.)
Maybe someone has some ideas about the killer who gets
arrested and other events in the book, giving some lit crit
analysis. I think I'll reread the book and might say
something, but in the meantime, I encourage people to read
it. It's a tight, brief little noir classic.
(And I'll head off some complaints by reminding people not to
stray far from hardboiled (and noir) fiction and related
things. The list works best if we all remember this, and that
we should trim as much quoted text as possible in
replies.)
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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