Goodis characters are frequently to be found confronting
their own death. Take THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN, for
instance, where the protagonist is thinking about committing
suicide on the first page. Or SOMEBODY'S DONE FOR, where the
book opens with the protagonist drowning, which goes on for
page after page. Goodis's first words as a novelist, the
opening line of RETREAT FROM OBLIVION: 'After a while it gets
so bad that you want to stop the whole business.'
Some wise person once described Goodis's novels as extended
suicide notes, and the vast majority certainly read as
conversations with death. To me.
Al
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@... wrote:
>
> Dave wrote:
>
> "While most noir books include a murder or two (or
three), these
> characters tend to be remorseless, and the hell they
find themselves
> trapped in tend be caused by other factors . .
."
>
> Look at Goodis. Not all of his books feature
murders, but he's
always
> got characters in hell.
>
> Mark
>
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