All your suggestions sound great and, as I got for
Valentine¹s day present a book about Pistol Pete whom I met
in my first year in the US as he was playing for LSU, I am
already tempted by your description of The Great
Molinas...
Just for the sake of argument I would be very curious to know
about any noir connection with car or motorcycle racing...I
know of a book by Vachss called The Getaway Man whose hero is
a Œdriver¹...unfortunately Vachss has bad press on Rara and
in the States in general, but the book is great...and dark as
wet shoe polish...but there must be some bleak corners of
pre-Nascar bootleging that have produced some dark
screetching tales...???... Any dark corners in the
Pan-American race or anything else on two or four
wheels?
Steve Novak
Cinefrog@comcast.net
On 2/14/07 8:19 PM, "T. Kent Morgan" <
tkmorgan@shaw.ca> wrote:
> I'm almost afraid to suggest some book as noir on
this list. Despite
> all the discussion about noir over the past few
years, I am more
> confused than ever as to what might qualify. But,
please, not more
> explanations, at least for awhile.
>
> John Williams mentioned David Peace's The Damed UTD.
After reading
> it late last year, on the this list I called it as
possibly the
> first football (soccer) noir. John would know
better. Definitely
> noir is The Great Molinas by Neil D. Isaacs, a novel
based on the
> life of basketball star Jack Molinas. He starred in
college, played
> in the NBA where he was kicked out for gambling,
became a lawyer,
> did jail time and was rubbed out by the mob. As it
states on the
> dust jacket, "if you have to go bad, you couldn't do
it with more
> success than Jack Molinas." I'm not a basketball
fan, but this novel
> rates right near the top of my persoanl sports
fiction list.
>
> The Jook by Gary Phillips also should qualify. The
late Barbara
> Serenella blurbed it as follows:
>
> Zelmont Raines is a former Super Bowl-winning wide
receiver who has
> self-destructed himself out of the limelight. He's
trying every way
> he knows to reclaim the life of fast women and big
money. All this
> leads to the end zone run of his life.
>
> The Last Season by Roy MacGregor about a hockey goon
also might fit
> the bill.
>
> Kent Morgan
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