> Now, every writer of fiction uses conicidence. The key is to use it
> sparingly . . . "
...or to otherwise use it with characters and pacing that the relevance of
the overuse of coincidence becomes peripheral to the overall quality of the
tale. It takes a unique writer to pull this off, and Goodis was one. It
wasn't an issue in every one of his novels, but when it cropped up it was
dampened by the sheer quality of the writing, the telling of the story. A
writer who used liberal coincidence even more in his tightly-paced tales was
Cornell Woorlich. Coincidence was almost an organic element of his
plotting, but few would say his tales suffered for it...it was just part and
parcel of what made a Woolrich tale something unique and special.
So, now the short answer: yes, I'd recommend DARK PASSAGE, even if you
didn't care for the film.
Ron C.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 04 Mar 2009 EST