Gary - ah, another Don Carpenter convert! I spent much of
last summer reading his entire backlist and agree that HARD
RAIN FALLING (which was excerpted in issue #2 of Murdaland)
is something special. The prose, the pain, the depiction of
the inner workings of men and their hidden longings and
primal instincts still sears my brain after all these months.
I, too, wish his work would be brought back into print,
though I'm not sure what the chances are at this point.
Sarah
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Gary" <piesbook@...>
wrote:
>
> The serendipity of discovering a book never ceases
to amaze me. All my
> adult life I have been networked to fans of crime
fiction, but
recently a
> man walked into my library who knew I had written
Read 'Em Their
Writes. He
> handed me this title and told me he thought it was
one of the best crime
> novels he had ever read.
>
>
>
> I have to agree. Even more remarkable, it is Don
Carpenter's first
novel.
>
>
>
> Hard Rain Falling is told in five parts. The first
exposition, a
very short
> prologue, details the birth of Jack Levitt in
Eastern Oregon. Jack
is born
> to people with limited parenting skills, ending up
an orphan. In
the second
> part, Jack has moved to Portland and it is 1949. He
is struggling
to exist,
> spending time with small hustles and living out of a
pool hall. When an
> African-American pool hustler named Billy Lancing
comes to Portland,
Billy's
> story takes over the narrative. By part three, Jack
is in San
Francisco,
> where through a series of unfortunate incidents, he
ends up in San
Quentin,
> only to find Billy as his cellmate. While the two
develop their
> relationship in prison, the novel takes time to show
Billy's path to his
> incarceration. Part four is devoted to Jack's life
outside of San
Quentin,
> when he decides to raise a family. Part five is the
coda on the
story.
>
>
>
> To say more about the plot is pointless as what
carries this book is a
> relentless debate on the merits of an unimaginable
number of human
> scenarios. Mostly told through reminiscences, the
book allows
characters to
> tell their stories while revealing the conditions
that created the
conflicts
> that plague them and the belief systems that led the
character to
make the
> choices that they made. These remarkable revelations
reveal the
true nature
> of love, the relationship between men and women, the
need for
homosexuality,
> the purpose of incarceration, the yearning for
parents and the
desire to be
> one, the causes behind crime and the hopelessness of
growing up
> disenfranchised in America.
>
>
>
> Don Carpenter was born in 1931 in Berkeley,
California. His family
moved to
> Portland where he graduated from high school. After
service in the Air
> Force during the Korean War, he earned a B.S. from
Portland State
College.
> After earning a M.A. from San Francisco State
College, he taught
English.
> For awhile, he was happily married and raised two
daughters. After the
> publication of his first novel, he moved to Mill
Valley, California, and
> became a full time writer. But divorce separated him
from his
family. He
> also spent years contributing to various projects in
Hollywood with his
> greatest success being the cult film Payday (1973)
starring Rip
Torn. In
> addition to Hard Rain Falling, he wrote, Blade of
Light (1967), The
Murder
> of the Frogs and Other Stories (1969), Getting Off
(1971), The True Life
> Story of Jody McKeegan (1975), A Couple of Comedians
(1979), Turnaround
> (1981), The Class of '49 (1985), The Dispossessed
(1986), and From A
Distant
> Place (1988). Ill, but still writing, he committed
suicide by
gunshot in
> 1995. More can be learned about this remarkable
writer at
> http://www.doncarpenterpage.com
<http://www.doncarpenterpage.com/>
.
>
>
>
> The words tour de force comes to mind. It certainly
will fit any
critic's
> definition of noir.
>
>
>
> Here is The Big Disappointment: Currently, none of
Don Carpenter's
novels
> are in print. A search of WorldCat reveals only 231
copies
available and
> the American Book Exchange lists only 28 used copies
for sale.
Sadly, just
> like the character of Jack Levitt, this novel has no
future, unless
someone
> gets this work back in print.
>
>
>
> Best, Gary Warren Niebuhr
> piesbook@...
> http://my.execpc.com/~piesbook/piescatalog.html
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
>
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