> I am currently rereading the works of Nathanael
West, and
> it occurred to me that his bleak view of the
human
> condition (which, in his case, means *all humans*)
is very
> much in line with what we call "noir". A novel like
A Cool
> Million could easily be rewritten as a tight
fifties
> paperback by changing the tongue-in-cheek narrators
voice
> into the voice of a dude who actually believes in
what he's
> doing, even if he doesn't know what he's doing. The
Day of
> the Locust wouldn't need any such stylistic changes:
it is
> a perfect cold dish of dark stuff.
>
> So I propose that we add West to the list of
noir
> precursors and practitioners. When we go down that
way, we
> end up collecting a lot of the greatest American
writers,
> starting with Twain and including Faulkner and
Hemingway -
> and now West.
>
> Next is Nelson Algren, whose work is staring at me
from the
> library.
>
> Best regards,
>
> MrT
>
>
FWIW, Geoffrey O'Brien lists West's novels (& works by
Faulkner, Hemingway & Algren) in his comprehensive
listing of "hardboiled" novels in the back of his HARDBOILED
AMERICA. I keep my omnibus ed. of West's collected novels
with my noir/hb books section of my library (this is a
wonderfully dignifying term for a chaotic mass of books on
shelves, floors & in boxes). IIRC, Paul Duncan also
includes the West novels in his survey of noir fiction. So.
Mario, you already have a lot of support for your contention.
Likewise, I think it's widely accepted that Mark Twain was a
major influence, either direct or indirect, on the early
hardboiled literary style. (I remember someone who had more
knowledge on the topic than I, basically drawing a time-line
for me that went, basically, Mark Twain > Sherwood
Anderson > Hemingway - once you get to Hemingway, the
influence on Hammett seems even more apparent. Just my two
cents worth).
Rene
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