I am currently rereading the works of Nathanael West, and it
occurred to me that his bleak view of the human condition
(which, in his case, means *all humans*) is very much in line
with what we call "noir". A novel like A Cool Million could
easily be rewritten as a tight fifties paperback by changing
the tongue-in-cheek narrators voice into the voice of a dude
who actually believes in what he's doing, even if he doesn't
know what he's doing. The Day of the Locust wouldn't need any
such stylistic changes: it is a perfect cold dish of dark
stuff.
So I propose that we add West to the list of noir precursors
and practitioners. When we go down that way, we end up
collecting a lot of the greatest American writers, starting
with Twain and including Faulkner and Hemingway - and now
West.
Next is Nelson Algren, whose work is staring at me from the
library.
Best regards,
MrT
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