I borrowed the first volume from the library and read all but
the Woolrich. This is an excellent collection.
I still didn't really like The Postman Always Rings Twice,
but let's not go into that again.
Of the others, I liked The Big Clock the least. It was
ambitiously told from about six different characters' points
of view in alternating chapters. Their tone didn't vary a
whole lot, though. And the motive for the murder seems
somewhat flimsy, especially now. I guess they sometimes are,
aren't they?
My favourite was Thieves Like Us, which is about three guys
who escape from prison and start robbing banks together. Each
of them has a different goal in mind, but none of them really
imagines himself ever doing anything but robbing. One of the
guys falls in love with a 14-year-old (much more mature than
he is), whom he calls his Little Soldier, and they start
travelling together. She thinks he has given up thieving, but
she is sadly mistaken. It's very moving and very well
written.
Nightmare Alley is great, as miker and others have already
said. It's about a young man who starts out doing sleight of
hand in a "ten-in-one" show, rises to performing at private
parties, then sets his eyes on a really big con. Along the
way he loses any scruples he might ever have had and starts
drinking heavily. I kept wondering how much lower he could
go. And of course I had known from the beginning, but
...
I also really liked They Shoot Horses, Don't They? I've never
seen the movie.
I'll have to go back to the Woolrich one of these days.
Volume 2 is also on the horizon.
Karin
On 09 Mar 2004 Marc Seals wrote: In addition to the excellent
suggestions of Hammett and Chandler (which is chock full of
the kind of humor that you seem to like), a good introduction
would be _CRIME NOVELS: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s_
(Library of America, 1997). It contains James Cain's _The
Postman Always Rings Twice_, Horace McCoy's _They Shoot
Horses, Don't They?_, Edward Anderson's
_Thieves Like Us, Kenneth Fearing's _The Big Clock_, William
Lindsay Gresham's _Nightmare Alley_, and Cornell Woolrich's
_I Married a Dead Man_.
The companion volume is _CRIME NOVELS: American Noir of the
1950s_ (Library of America, 1997). It contains Patricia
Highsmith's _The Talented Mr. Ripley_, David Goodis's _Down
There_, Jim Thompson's _The Killer Inside Me_, Charles
Willeford's _Pick-Up_, and Chester Himes's _The Real Cool
Killers_.
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