For me, the best Tracy novel is, in fact, Criss Cross, which
was adapted for the screen by R. Siodmak, starring Lancaster
and Yevonne DeCarlo, with a tremendous script by the
underrated Daniel Fuchs (the Jerome Charyn of the 1940s).
Criss Cross was remade by Steven Sondberg in 1995, entitled
Underneath, based pretty much on Fuch's original screenplay.
The novel- Tracy's first- was published in 1934, and is
reminescent of Goodis- though the latter's first novel would
not be published for another four years. Narrated in the
first person, Criss Cross grapples with themes that Tracy
would recycle in his later fiction- obtaining a foothold on
the economic ladder, racism, the pain of relationships,
identity, and alcoholism, a condition which Tracy would fight
against for a good part of his life. Tracy went on to write
such crime novels as Round Trip (1934), the aforementioned
How Sleeps the Beast (1937), whose cover blurb states: "The
man- NEGRO, The Girl- WHITE, The Payoff- LYNCH!), The Big
Blackout (1959), The Hated One
(1963), and Look Down on Her Dying (1968). He won an Edgar
Award in 1974 for Flats Fixed, Among Other Things. Tracy also
wrote historical novels, as well as sports stories for
adolescents, and contributed stories to the Saturday Evening
Post with titles like "The Duck That Flew Backwards" and "The
Alligator That Hated the Swamp." Under the name Roger Fuller,
he wrote novelisations based on such television series as
Peyton Place, The Defenders
, The Fugitive and Burke's Law. Towards the end of his life-
he died in 1976- he became President of the anti-alcohol New
Life Foundation. Accordingly, Tracy's final book was
non-fiction: What You Should Know About Alcoholism. Hope this
helps, Woody Haut
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