hi everybody!
i finished gresham's _nightmare alley_ a few days ago, and it
was great. after reading the first 50 pages, i thought the
title was a bit overboard, but i should have reserved my
judgement until the end. i haven't seen a main protagonist
sweat so much since charles williams's
_river girl_.
SPOILER FOLLOWS***********
this is one of the few (the only?) noirs i've read where the
protagonist's downfall was not from the cops or other
criminals, but from pure character and personality dis-
integration. and its a great, but tragic show. poor stan
starts the book out as a somewhat likable rookie carny, and
quickly shows a talent for being a mentalist, which means
that he observes a person, and then makes intelligent guesses
about past events in their lives, impressing the person with
his ability to see into their past, and then making
supposedly valuable suggestions on how to deal with the
future. he strikes out on his own and decides that there's
more money in being a spirit- ualist, so he gives up telling
the future for being an intermediary between the living and
the dead.
as the seriousness of his cons escalate, a mistress from
hell, the pressures of the con, and some serious oedipal
baggage from the past combine to chase him down the night-
mare alley his life has become. the ending is spectacular
irony.
my only complaint about the book is some odd socialistic
rhetoric in the book. i call it odd because its like your
sitting at the movie theater and all of a sudden a commercial
pops up in the middle. it weakens the book. the implication
is that stan's dilemma just might be a result of the evils of
capitalism, and thats pure rubbish. stan is destined for hell
whether under the cruel yoke of capitalism or arm-in-arm with
brother marx and engels.
miker
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