I think Goodis' problem was in trying to write the same novel over and over again from so many different angles--the weak man torn between a whore and an angel, the need to rise above the sins of the flesh and booze, but being pulled back into the gutter by a woman.
I've read all of Goodis and just about every novel fits this pattern to a greater or lesser extent. The man never breaks free in any of his novels. Am forgetting one? No, I don't think so. Not one.
Jeff
>
> When exactly was Goodis's fall? I have not yet read all of his books, neither his first nor last, but have read both early and late and don't see a decline. Now I'm not implying all of his books are great, but the better and the not so good seem to be side by side. For instance, The Wounded and the Slain, not one of his best, comes right between The Blonde on the Street Corner and Down There, two particularly good ones. And his faults, like the over reliance on coincidence, run throughout his career. Of course, in his best books, like Street of No Return, Goodis could make you overlook those coincidences.
> Mark
>
>> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
>> From: clinton65@comcast.net
>> Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:34:10 -0700
>> Subject: RE: RARA-AVIS: Where have you gone Rara-Avis (Brewer)
>>
>> I'll throw in my comment along with the others for conversation...
>>
>> I just read Gil Brewer's MEMORY OF PASSION (Lancer, 1962, pbo), and I can
>> now safely say -- and with not a little amount of regret -- I know precisely
>> where Brewer's decline began.
>>
>> I was really looking forward to this novel since it's the Brewer that's
>> evaded me for some time, but it was a disappointment on many levels. The
>> decline into alcoholism, hackwork and sleaze porn novels...in hindsight,
>> MEMORY painfully foreshadows all that's to come. 'Course, even judged on
>> its own merits in a contextual vacuum, it's a slogging mess...and you won't
>> find a much bigger fan of Brewer than me.
>>
>> The decline in quality from his brilliant '50s novels to MEMORY is stunning;
>> I can't think of another pbo author whose decline parallels (let alone
>> exceeds) the degree to which Brewer fell. Some come close, perhaps (Goodis
>> comes to mind, as does Woolrich), but none reach Brewer's extreme.
>>
>> Ron C.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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