I've just read Woolrich's FRIGHT and must say I find it one
of the funniest books I've read this year. I keep seeing
Preston Marshall as Fatty Arbuckle. The prat falls and double
takes of his guilty conscience are a riot. I do understand
why Woorich set this in 1915. Telephones were the exception,
not the rule and one could still rent an apartment with cash
and not have to give references. Today, Preston Marshall
would be all over America's Most Wanted and even in 1925
there would have been all-points bulletins out for him in the
situation he believed himself. In 1915, news was really
local. I thought the character of Marjorie jumped the Shark.
Her meek acceptance of every crazy idea her husband had
seemed incredible to me. That his obvious paranoia never
elicits any questions from her amazed me. But that a Catholic
girl would meekly consent to an abortion because her husband
doesn't want to be tied down was completely over the top.
That wouldn't happen today never mind in 1915. And what about
Marshall's family in New Hampshire? They never expect him
home for Christmas? Never contact him?
The interesting part of the book is the idea of how a normal
person with a weak personality deals with committing a murder
by chance. His initial panic, the scene in the room with the
corpse and his best man is a riot. The way it prays on his
mind I found very interesting to contemplate. I wonder how
getting away with murder effects a person who is not
psychotic? As we see at the wedding, Marshall was a Roman
Catholic. After the death of Wise, we learn, as he watches
the stars, that Marshall has become an atheist.
While Woolrich's purple passages and liquid metaphors are a
lot to deal with, I found the book engaging and interesting
to think about. Preston Marshall is a very unattractive
protagonist. He is not charming, he is not intelligent, he is
a coward, and a clown. While Frank in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS
RINGS TWICE, is an unscrupulous character, he's both cunning
and masculine. Marshall has not even these traits. The
employer, Pond, is an interesting person because of the
initial way he dealt with his own crimes, but he's underused
in the book. Wise and his wife are great characters, but
represent more of Marshall's fear of what they may be, then
the people they actually turn out to be. I do feel sorry for
Marjorie but her continued stupidity mitigates most of my
good feelings. She is in every way better than her husband so
why ever did she marry him in the first place?
Patrick King
--- Fabienne soldini <
fabsoldini@yahoo.fr> wrote:
> Hello Juri
>
> In France, we don't know that Finnish
theorie.
> I don't konw the original titles; so iItry
to
> ttranslate the French title but it's not
necesserary
> the same title, and it creates confusion. For
Bloch
> I've read, a long time ago, Psycho and
"Chicago
> Butcher" (le boucher de Chicago). I've liked
the
> both.
> A Finnish autor I really love is Arto
Paasilinna.
> It's very funny with a subtile philosophy of
life.
> He's not exactly an author of crime stories, but
he
> wrote noir novel. A very funny book which is
noir,
> what is translated in French, "une douce
> empoisonneuse". Spoiler: it's about an old women
who
> lives quietly in a little house in the forest.
One
> day, her nephew and friends of him came to visit
her
> to get money. The nephew and his friends are
not
> very clever and really lazy. She became afraid
and
> decided to leave her house and to go to
Helsinky.
> the nephew wants to murder her to get the
money,
> but she's poor. She decided to suicide herself
by
> poison but with a lot of quiproquo, she doesn't
die
> but murders by accident her nephew and his
friends.
> it's very funny. And today I buy another book
of
> Paasilinna: "hurmaava joukkoitsemurha" translated
in
> French as "Little suicides with friends"
>
> Friendly
>
> Fabienne
>
> Juri Nummelin <
juri.nummelin@pp.inet.fi> a 飲it :
> Fabienne,
>
> sorry, I misunderstood the title you were
talking
> about. (About de Rais:
> there's a Finnish book on him and that
writer
> refutes the theories of him
> being a serial killer.)
>
> As for Bloch, it's been years I read THE DEAD
BEAT,
> but remember enjoying
> it. I just liked PSYCHO and THE SCARF
better.
>
> Juri
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Ne gardez plus qu'une seule adresse mail !
Copiez
> vos mails vers Yahoo! Mail
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have
been
> removed]
>
>
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