--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Vorzimmer" <jvorzimmer@...>
wrote:
> I don't think he crammed enough living in those good years to give his
> novels the necessary verisimilitude before retreating to the
oblivion of the
> poolhalls of Northeast Philly.
I don't know that I read Goodis for verisimilitude. the basic plot
points of almost all of his books go for extremes that push the ol'
suspension of disbelief way into the red, let alone misplaced details
about the guns and such.
for me what's valuable in Goodis's books is seeing how his characters
react to the outlandish circumstances they find themselves in, and the
emotional & psychological truths that he uncovers about them in the
process. I get sucked into the suspense of how the characters are
going to behave under the extreme pressures he puts on them.
I also like the peculiarities of his language, the incantatory effect
he gets out of short blunt statements of emotional fact, sort of
stuttered, chopped up & repeated. it really gets that emotional
claustrophobia going.
Tom Armstrong
www.tomarmstrongmusic.com
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