I just finished Goodis' Down There (filmed by Truffaut as
Shoot the Piano Player, which I saw about 20 years ago and
remember not one frame). I've only read two other Goodis
titles, Black Friday and Of Tender Sin, both of which I
immensely enjoyed. My first impression of Down There? Bleak.
And I mean really fucking bleak. Not a book to warm the
cockles of any true sinner's heart. Sometimes, I read these
noir novels and I think, man, why do I put myself in these
hellish worlds. But I guess it's because I get to come out
unscathed, basking in the good world of my wife and kids. And
also, I fear that my life could have ended up like one of
these empty- souled drifters. But it didn't. And that makes
all the difference.
I was reading the Black Box Thriller edition containing four
Goodis novels and the introduction likens Goodis' novels to
the world after Bogart's Ric comes home from Casablanca,
down-and-out, his life a little less than that hill of beans.
But I think Goodis' stories are worse. His characters are
like Bogart's Rick in which Ilsa never returns for one last
reminder of past happiness. In Goodis' books, Ilsa has
already been tortured and killed by the Nazis. Or worse yet,
Ilsa returns, a closet Nazi herself, only to torture Rick
until he begins to like the torture, to thrive on it.
Hard stuff. Think I'll go upstairs and read another.
Looking forward to GoodisCon in Philly this weekend.
Ed
The Bibliothecary, a blog of literary endeavour. http://bibliothecary.squarespace.com/
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