Ed Lynskey said:
> This past weekend I finished reading
William
> Lindsay Gresham's _Nightmare Alley_ and
David
> Goodis' _Down There_. I was impressed by
their
> writing styles, a certain way each wrote
books.
> The plots were inventive and held my
attention
> but I found myself just enjoying how they
put
> words and sentences together without a lot
of
> flash and glitz. Is that the mark of a
hardboiled
> classic?
*************** Those are both good books. If I was attaching
labels, I'd give Goodis's DOWN THERE the hardboiled and noir
tags, but just the noir tag to NIGHTMARE ALLEY. But whatever
the labels, they are good books. I liked NIGHTMARE ALLEY
because I've never seen a more thorough and wonderful
personality disintegration in my life. And Goodis can flesh
out a character with a whole lotta soul in two pages. Hmm...
DOWN THERE is another name for SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, isn't
it?
miker
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