RARA-AVIS: Not Too Narrow

From: George Tuttle ( noirfiction@whoever.com)
Date: 11 Aug 2007


Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep by Richard Sale -- an incredible work of American literature that defines genre classification. It was published in 1936. It is worth mentioning.

It has a truly memorable opening paragraph:

Nine out of ten of those coast fishermen who put in at St. Pierre and offer escape are rascals. I remember the horror I felt when I first learned that they trafficked in other men's misery. They'd offer their boat for your escape. When you got on it and put out to sea they'd stab you in the back; and when you were dead they'd disembowel you, cut out the metal capsule with your precious money, and throw your body overboard where the sharks and the barracuda made short work of it. You have to hide your money in your body, you see, because that is the only safe place you have.



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