This book is the second volume in the Library of America set on American crime noir. I enjoyed the first volume so much that I decided to read the second one during Christmas break. Once again, the LOA has done a nice job of collecting a fine series of stories. These stories were written during the 1950's and 1960's. The book is nice to look at too; it's covered in red cloth with a cloth bookmark.

The first story is from the demented mind of Jim Thompson. This story, called The Killer Inside Me, is much better than The Grifters, a book by Thompson that I read some time ago. The Grifters seemed to be pretty one-dimensional with respect to its characters. This story is the exact opposite. A deputy sheriff in a Texas city has a terrible secret. He plays dumb on the outside, but inside he is a cunning sociopath. A long simmering resentment leads to a terrible revenge. Bodies quickly stack up as a result. This seems to be the story that Thompson is best known for and it's no surprise why. This is a dark, twisted tale with a grim ending.

Patricia Highsmith wrote a whole series of stories concerning Tom Ripley. The one included here is The Talented Mr. Ripley, probably better known due to the recent film with Matt Damon. This tale isn't as noir as I would have liked, but it still has enough twists and turns to keep anybody in suspense. Ripley is a low class conniver who ingratiates himself into a wealthy family who wants him to go to Italy and bring back their son. Ripley sees the potential for bucks and meets up with the kid and his lady friend. Of course, things take a turn for the worse and the bodies start stacking up. This story was probably my least favorite out of the entire collection.

The next story, Pick-Up, by Charles Willeford, is a depressing tale about two alcoholics who go bump in the night. The story follows the adventures of this alcoholic couple as they attempt suicide, check themselves into a mental hospital, and drink themselves into a stupor. After the female half of the couple dies in another suicide pact, the story switches to a prison tale. The end is somewhat of a twist, but really doesn't impact the story that much, in my opinion. Again, not really noir as noir can be, but still a fine story that can stand by itself.

Down There, by David Goodis, is a wild ride of a tale. Full of suspense and death, this is a great story that deserves to be included here. A family of ne'er-do-wells drags their talented piano-playing brother into their personal problems. The background information on Eddie, the piano player, is phenomenal. The tragedy that has struck him once is bound to repeat itself again. This story has great bit characters that really liven up the background.

The final story, by Chester Himes, is The Real Cool Killers. This is noir on acid: pornographic violence, massive doses of grim reality, and characters you're glad to see get killed. The story is set in Harlem and involves two tough cops named Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Someone kills a white guy in Harlem and the cops try and track them down. This story contains one of the funniest descriptions of a person falling off a balcony that I've ever read (and I've read a few, disturbingly enough). The writing has enough similes and metaphors to give Raymond Chandler an apoplectic fit. A cool story that certainly deserves a place in this book.

If you like noir, read these two LOA novels. They are long (together they're almost 2000 pages) but it is definitely worth the effort. These kinds of stories are just a great way to while away some free time and relieve stress.

I gave it 5 stars based on the collection as a whole, rather than each story individually. I enjoyed all of the stories, in that they were a good representation of the genre as a whole, yet they were all stylistically different.

Individually, I would rate the stories in pretty much the order they appear in the book. "The Killer Inside Me" is the most powerful, in my opinion, and is a great indroduction to Jim Thompson if you haven't read his work previously. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is also excellent, and is a must read for any fan of crime fiction. What I found more interesting was the contrast between the protagonists in the first two novels. Both are cold-hearted killers, but you couldn't find two more different voices. Its a tribute to both Mr. Thompson and Ms. Highsmith that you actually root for these people to get away with their crimes.

The other three novels are good, but they pale in comparison to the first two. "Pick-up" is a good study in a relationship between two alcoholics who know they are alcoholics and are okay with it. It takes awhile for the crime to be committed, but its an interesting journey. I didn't care for the twist ending, but that's just me. "Down There" was interesting to read, if only because it was the basis for a great movie. "The Real Cool Killers" was the only story of the five that I had trouble getting through. I think that was because I didn't really care (or even really believe) that A) a group of street punks would dress in the manner they were described in, or that B) a pair of street detectives would be as violent, feared, and given such free reign as the ones in this novel.

All in all, a good book to add to your collection, if only for the one-two punch of Thompson and Highsmith (by the way, that would be a great name for a law firm).

I usually don't like genre fiction, but this book is a great collection of "Noir" novels. Film buffs will be particularly interested in reading the novel on which "Shoot the Piano Player" was based, as well as the first "Mr. Ripley" novel (much nastier and darker than the recent film). Most highly recommended.

Sallis has written a beautiful concentrated gem of a book, no doubt hard to get by now. Unique and insightful, and really essential for anyone who wants to understand how and why these noir masters were able to create and produce what they did. If you are intrigued by any of them, don't miss it; and if you are as mesmerized by Jim Thompson as I am, you can't live without this jewel. (And don't even think about asking for my 'signed edition'...its staying with the first edition Thompson paperbacks that surround it.)

Maybe one shouldn't compare the movie and book versions of a story. But sometimes that's inevetibable. And sometimes the movie actually improves on the book, ie. "In a Lonely Place." However, in the case of "Shoot the Piano Player," based on the book "Down There," by David Goodis, I can't say this is so. The look of the movie has that gritty noir feel, but all the time one feels as if they're watching the characters in a goldfish bowl ? from a great remove. You don't really get to know the characters or their motivations. In the book, this is much more clear and makes for a much more involving experience. Also, the addition of the character Fido (the piano player's younger brother) adds little to the story. In novel and movie we don't really get a great feel for why the waitress does what she does, but in the novel we get more of a feel for it and that does make a difference. It also makes a difference that we know more of the piano player's background, that he served with Merrill's Marauders in World War II, that, after losing his first wife, he went on a binge of anger and hate and fighting that finally led him to be the "docile" person he is when we meet him. This is little explained in the movie. Some of it's there, but much of it isn't and without it the character just seems a cypher. Read the book, watch the movie and decide for yourself.

Shoot the Piano Player is certainly a depressing yet fascinating read. The story is about, not surprisingly, a piano player. This poor fellow has a most bizarre background, and an equally bizarre family. Nothing works for him, his prospects are bleak. Then in walks (or rather, crawls) his long absent brother who is escaping from some nasty criminals ... and our piano player's world is turned on its head. No happy ending (, or beginning or middle). The story oozes despair and loneliness. Yet this is its strength.

David Goodis does an superb job in capturing the emotional turmoil of our piano player. His prose is very good, and the characterizations in general are well-drawn. The story itself, while original enough, is not outstanding. However upon reading the book I felt as if I brought into 1950s Philadelphia, living with our piano player and his low-life "friends" and family.

Bottom line: definitely not a dose of sunshine. But wonderful nonetheless.

A classic in the Black Lizard library. Goodis is as good a writer on angst and mystery as you will ever read. Unfortunately relegated to dimestore paperback status, this work rises above the average mystery tale.

Goodis paints a world of loneliness, despair and grimmy realism unmatched in it's starkness. Not to be missed.

After reading about Goodis and reading his hard to find "The Burglar"-and really liking it, I went out and bought all of the David Goodis books I could get my hands on. "Dark Passage" is the second of his books I've read and after the intensity and surrealness of "The Burglar" I have to say that I found "Dark Passage" a little disappointing.Still a good read but somewhat frustrating in its pacing. Goodis is one of the greats of noir and anything by him is worth reading ....I'd just start with a different one than "Dark Passage" and work my way back to it.

'Dark Passage' by David Goodis, perhaps best known by the film adaptation (starring Bogart and Bacall), is the best of several David Goodis novels I've read and yet, most puzzling, it is the only one presently out of print. I can certainly recommend searching far and wide for a used copy because it is an excellent example of 1940s crime 'noir' writing, as good as anything Chandler, Cain or Thompson have dished out (and these authors have all written great stuff).

In 'Dark Passage' we have an escaped con in San Francisco. He gets involved with a mysterious young woman who helps him in both staying on the run and finding out who indeed did the crime (the murder of his no good wife) for which he was falsely accused of. The book is written in the first person (..in typical Goodis fashion), and so we get "under the skin" of our leading man. Perhaps in this book (compared to the others I've read) Goodis does the best job of interweaving strange characters into a plausible story, with the end result being an ending which is both surprising and gratifying.

Bottom line: a must read if you can find a copy. Brilliant.

What makes this novel unique in the Goodis canon is that, while as dark, detailed, layered and sad as Goodis' later work, "Dark Passage" manages to project a sense of hope absent in his post-Hollywood novels. Where the later material, as impressionistic and wonderful as it is, presents characters with no future, a grim past, and a long-shot at momentary, hollow gain (missed, of course), Parry has a tangible, worthwhile goal: freedom. Because he believes he can achieve that goal, meets people who believe he can achieve it and, without question, deserves to achieve it, we ache for him at every obstruction in the road.

Still, Parry is one of Goodis' saddest creations -- a perpetual victim who, in spite of good intentions, finds himself in a vicious, dark vortex -- mostly through his own passiveness. The scenes flashing back to his relationship with his ex-wife are as depressing and heart-wrenching as any Goodis ever wrote. Unlike later Goodis characters, Parry realizes that he must re-make himself both inside and out to have any chance of escaping either of his former incarcerations. Therein lies the balancing act in this novel: the story of his attempt to escape San Quentin (an imprisonment for which is he not to blame) is supplemental to his attempt to escape the real-life traps brought on by his past behavior/demeanor. An exciting & often funny novel (people don't often mention how funny even the darkest Goodis novels can be).

Of Tender Sin is my first David Goodis novel, and I was impressed. People often categorise Goodis novels along the same lines as works by Jim Thompson or Cornell Woolrich. But Of Tender Sin reminds me of the earlier works by Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr Ripley), complete with the deconstruction of a paranoid, weak individual with criminal intent.

In this book with have a young actuary and his wife going through ... a difficult patch. He thinks she is cheating on him. He also starts have strange visions (..the sudden appearence of platinum blonde hair on women) and disturbing flashbacks (unwholesome memories of his older sister). Just when his life couldn't get more weird he then sets on getting the man he thinks his wife is seeing, runs into an old flame (a very strange lady), and ... the story gets very interesting indeed.

My only complaint with the book, and really a minor one, is the ending. Goodis writes very nicely, and the story builds up a decent level of suspense. But the ending seems anti-climatic and all too ... realistic. For a book that is very bizarre I didn't expect, or want, a believable ending.

Bottom line: I can't understand why his books aren't better known. David Goodis is a talent, and Of Tender Sin is a fine read.

Every city has a street where the most pathetic bums congregate, where the filthiest flophouses and scariest bars are to be found. That's also where you'll find David Goodis's characters: Wherever they begin, you will find they will plummet to the lowest depths like a sinker.

Alvin Darby is married to a beautiful brunette and works in an office making good money as an actuary, but there is a wild hair (literally) up his craw. He is drawn to a strange vision of a platinum blonde and can't quite figure why. Before he married, he ran around with one such blonde named Geraldine but found her too capricious. But his marriage starts to unravel as he suspects his wife of infidelity. Instead of confronting her, however, he loses himself in the platinum blonde dream and begins to frequent low bars and lower company.

Sigmund Freud would approve of how Alvin confronts his past -- pardon me, but I can't divulge the secret -- and begins the slow process of redemption.

Goodis is always worth reading, and this is one of his best, if not one of his better known. This British Serpent's Tail edition comes with a respectful if not exactly accurate introduction by Adrian Wootton, who seems to think the SATURDAY EVENING POST was a newspaper. I am grateful that Serpent's Tail published OF TENDER SIN and look forward to obtaining their other Goodis titles.

I always look foward to the David Goodis reprints, even back in the eighties from black lizard.During the last few years the odd titles published by serpents tail have come out so sporadically you wondered what the next title was going to be. No disappointment here! Of Tender Sin one of the earlier Goodis novels has the protagonist/antihero paired up with his muse "the downward spiral".Quick paced and a gritty philly backdrop provide the hardboiled goodis formula.For anyone not familiar with the Goodis ouevre welcome, for those in the know, lets just say this makes for a great beach read on a cloudy day.

I tracked this down after reading George Pelecanos describe it as his favorite crime novel. It is a dark, brooding tale of a thief and his cohorts in early 1950s Philadelphia & Atlantic City. It reminded me a lot of Jim Thompson's work from the same period. Not a fast-moving story, but at the same time it's hard to break away from. A good look at the psychological costs of a life of crime.

Ed Gorman in "The Big Book of Noir" said of David Goodis "he didn't write novels, he wrote suicide notes". This was enough to peak my interest and The Burglar(1953) was the first Goodis book I could get my hands on-it didn't disappoint-if you are into this sort of thing. A little perverse, a lot of morose, a good story, a lingering sadness. Goodis is reputed to be an acquired taste-not necessarily for everyone but if you like him chances are you'll like him alot-so far so good. Highly recommended.

Four "bums," all in their early 30s, all still living at home, all hopelesly frozen in the hell of inanimation, stand on the street corner eating Indian nuts and buying 16 cent packs of cigarettes, talking about nothing, doing nothing, going nowhere and not much caring. It is fascinating to think that The Blonde on the Street Corner [1954], stylistically most aytpical of David Goodis' novels, should appear just a year after the publication of alain Robbe-Grillet's The Erasers [Eng. Tr. 1964]. Goodis doesn't go nearly so far as Robbe-Grillet in dispensing with character, plot, and all the other traditional elements of the novel, but he does give us a kind of pulp analogue, with rhythmic repetitions of a domestic ugliness, banality, and violence not much short of the "spirit of ugly" celebrated by William S. Burroughs just a few years down the road.

For Goodis, the icy heart of this ugliness is the essential meaninglessness of things, so that the novel's tired randomness of events moves forward in the kronos of the profane. By default, almost, nothingness becomes the novel's central obsession:

"You don't know what you'll be doing tonight. Or tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. What are you? What do you do? You stand on the corner. You're one of the bums. You're thirty years old and what do you have?

"Nothing."

"Is that what you want?"

"It gives me very little to worry about. I don't have to think about losing it. There's nothing to lose." (152)

Nothing is mostly what "happens" in this novel, which is only superficially set in the Depression, but could occur at any time in the bleak unending asphalt of row houses and and torn overcoats in the Goodis Urban Freezer. Genuine relationships are impossible to achieve and undesirable to sustain. Marriage and family are dead ends. Work is a humiliating experience, difficult to come by, and ultimately without meaning. As in so many of Goodis's novels, at the center of this one lounges a fat, sensual woman, verbally abusive to everyone around her. Here, though, she is not so much fascinating for the protagonist as she is a way to pass the time, when time itself is of no account. It's as if Goodis had exhausted himself of his own masochistic leitmotif and stood looking in the abyss, seeing and feeling nothing but the cold. "What is this?" says one of the young bums, Dippy, whenever something he doesn't understand arises. It becomes, by novel's end, Goodis's own bewildered ontological question, one he is too far gone to care about asking, much less answering. Recommended for Goodis fans.

This novel is Goodis's classic tale of urban desolation. Like a bleak, sparse George Bellows painting, Goodis' world is master strokes of grim description from torn overcoats to bloodied maws to swearing Santas. At the center is Ralph Creel, a lazy bum torn between his romantic soul and his animalistic instincts. Ralph Creel is a fighter, a survivor, a supremely Goodis creation who like us all, eventually gives in to life, to the Fat Blonde on the Street Corner, but not before he allows the reader to witness some moments of Grace./

Forget the title--this book is not about sex. At least, not very much (only a brief reference or two). What it's about is what it's like to live as a young poor person in Philadelphia. The book was written in the 1950's, it's written about the 1930's, but as a former resident of Philadelphia, I can attest to the fact that it is as accurate a depiction of today's world as any other decade. The novel is a small gem that captures the essence of being unemployed and poor in the big city, but without being depressing or moralistic in any way. Doesn't sound like much of a recipe for success, but Goodis is a master at bringing a mood to life. He accomplishes with understatement what most novelists never achieve: genuine, believable characters in real settings. This book has not, to my knowledge, been made into a film as his other works have, which is probably due to the unusual plot structure (basically, not much excitement goes on in the book), but the trueness of his vision soars beyond any limitations. I lived in similar circumstances to the characters in the book, and was astonished at the accuracy that Goodis gives to real life. It's amazing. Worth a read, even if you are only marginally interested. It's a brief page turner that leaves you longing for more, just as the characters in the book feel. This book is a revelation.

'Nightfall' is a short novel by David Goodis, written at the height of his career (in the early 1950s). True to form, Goodis focuses on a single character and his angst. This time we have a man who has difficulty remembering the details of his involvement with $300,000 taken in a bank heist. On his tail are the bank robbers and the police. One fully appreciates this man's plight. However this alone didn't capivate this reader. Why?

Authors like David Goodis and Patricia Highsmith who specialise on suspense and apprehension of a leading character (typically a victim or a criminal) succeed when there are additional characters and/or circumstances that 'fill out' the story. However 'Nightfall' is really a one-dimensional story. The author fails to build on an interesting sub-plot involving a police detective, with the help of his wife, chasing our poor central character. Before long I found 'Nightfall' to be a tedious read.

Bottom line: certainly a must read for those into 'noir' fiction. Others will probably find it too dark, depressing and claustrophobic.

Wonderful story of a man on the run from the law, and the sympathetic policeman who takes an interest in his case. A beautiful book, spare and haunting. Not a wasted word. Goodis sometimes reaches for poetry in his tales, but here he achieves it with a delicate poise. Very atypical of the bulk of Goodis's output, and probably not the place to start, but this is one of the great post-WW2 thrillers, and as close as anyone's ever come to evoking film noir on the page.

Why was this pithy review of an entirely mediocre David Goodis novel published, while my legitimate review was not?

David Goodis is an aquired taste, no question. To appreciate him, it helps to have a sympathetic ear for the downtrodden, the lost and desperate, the tragic and the downright masochistic. If you look for an upbeat mood in your stories, don't come to these mean Philadelphia streets, where Goodis' winos and criminals live. Go elsewhere for your happiness pill, here lies misery and alcohol and lost dreams. Now, if you're still with me, then you can be sure that "Street of No Return" is Goddis' finest work, and well worth the search required to find a copy (I recommend the search services listed in the back of "The Armchair Detective"). The story concerns a down-and-outer who leaves his hobo buddies one night in search of liquor, takes us on a journey through his once-promising life and subsequent fall, his brutalization at the hands of the most god-awful band of scarred, obese, sadistic and cold-hearted criminals you could ever hope not to meet, in the coldest and bleakest of landscapes that ever came out of a downtrodden, brilliant mind. 175 pages later he returns to his buddies, his life as depressing and hopeless as ever, and it's just where he wants to be. Not a care. Not a care on the world. This character, this writer, just doesn't give a damn. David Goodis' writing is instantly recognizable, and that is the mark of genius -- when you write like absolutely no one else. Highly recommended.

Goodis's second-tier novels aren't really stories so much as they are examinations of his morbid psychology. Stay away from this one, Cassidy's Girl, and The Blonde on the Street Corner.

David Goodis is the champion of the down-and-outs, druggies, boozers and misfits. In 'The Moon in the Gutter' we have an interesting story about a stevedore (dock worker) and his utterly miserable existence. He has difficulty in coming to grips with the grisly death of his sister, his home life is a disaster, and his future looks bleak. But then he meets a blonde from the other side of the tracks and ....

While I won't give any spoilers here let me just say I felt very let down by the ending of this novel. David Goodis brings the reader into the life of this poor soul and shows us his world without compassion. Towards the end the tension builds (..again no spoilers) but the author fails miserably in tying it all together at the end. Very disappointing.

Bottom line: a missed opportunity by Goodis. Intriguing, but best left to Goodis fans only.

This guy is the Knut Hamsun of Noir. Grit, realism served up filthy-delphia style. His characters speak in the harsh dialect of wasted lives, guts, soul and all other essentials of the True Predecessor of Bukow, Selby, Fante, and Leonard Gardner...the beauty of ugliness is the religion of Goodis and his brash honesty and no-holds barred grappling prose style make him one of the greats.