I've read several of Goodis' and consider him one of the
masters of noir. I think he's one of the bleakest of the
bleak. He very rarely has the dark humor of Thompson or
Willeford to kind of relieve the pervasive depression, but I
enjoy them in a perverse kind of way because he's just so
damn good. After reading one of his I have to pick up
something lighter like Charles Williams or watch a
brain-candy movie. LOL
Amy
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Michael Robison
<miker_zspider@...> wrote:
>
> First, thanks to everybody for all the
recommendations
> on Bukowski. I've got three of his novels on
order.
> The Beat goes on.
>
> Anyway, Goodis. I suck at coming up with
spontaneous
> comments but I'm going to give it a shot. Coming
late
> to the hardboiled and noir genre, I spent
several
> years moving about from author to author, and
only
> coming back if I had to. So unlike a lot of
people
> here who are well-read in Goodis, I only
recently
> added Cassidy's Girl to Shoot the Piano
Player.
>
> I think that Shoot the Piano Player is a movie
rename
> for a novel of his by a different title. The
protag
> was very talented concert pianist. He's happy and
all
> if wonderful and he says something that upsets
his
> wife and she kills herself. He blames himself
and
> abandons the piano and heads down a path of
violence
> and self-destruction. He settles down a little
and
> when the book starts, he's playing piano in a
sleazy
> bar and keeping to himself. A woman stirs him
from
> his apathy and he goes back into the
violence
> business.
>
> Goodis doesn't use a lot of words to describe the
old
> hotels and sleazy bars his characters frequent, but
he
> doesn't need many. He can dial a scene in in a
couple
> short sentences. The people are the same. The
lady
> contortionist who boarded in a room close to his
is
> vividly done in a short paragraph. It's been a
while
> since I've read this book, but I don't remember
the
> female fitting femme fatale jacket very
well.
>
> In a big chunk of noir the protagonist heads
towards
> his downfall for reasons of greed or lust,
an
> escalating pattern of moral transgression.
Cassidy's
> Girl breaks from this. Cassidy is a
successful
> airline pilot, the clean-cut college graduate that
all
> the good girls like. Then a plane goes down
through
> no fault of his own and he takes the blame. As
in
> Shoot the Piano Player, this drives the protag
to
> violence, drinking, and slumming. Cassidy's
Girl
> differs in that it has a genuine femme fatale.
There
> is a fair amount of violence.
>
> These books have a lot in common as far as plot,
but
> the two books don't read like one. They
are
> distinctly different. Both men start out
successful
> and talented in a skilled job beyond blue collar.
The
> both lose it and take up violence and slumming,
and
> appear to do a damn good job at it. Alcoholism is
a
> much stronger theme in Cassidy's Girl. I don't
have
> the books here in front of me but I would guess
that
> Cassidy's Girl came several years after the other
one.
>
>
> Both books were good, but I see Cassidy's Girl as
the
> better book. It's more complex and the ironic
twist
> at the end is wonderful. Because Goodis's books
are
> short, he only fleshes out two or three
characters
> solidly, but still doing justice to the
secondary
> characters.
>
> Man. I've written quite a bit here and said
damn
> little. Haha! Par for the course. Let me wrap
this
> up. In both books I think Goodis is
definitely
> indulging in glorifying the situation in all
its
> sordid splendor. Both protags are good fighters,
and
> Goodis goes into detail about how well-built
Cassidy
> is. The women are more than standard femmes
fatale.
> I see Cassidy as having parallels to Job. For
the
> most part, he doesn't deserve the bad that comes
his
> way. I'm not sure about Doris in the novel. I
get
> the feeling that she's been unfairly written off
at
> the end of the book. I suspect a bit of
sloppiness
> here, but the jury is still out on that.
>
> miker
>
>
>
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