THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN by David Goodis

At the other end of the bar they were having a good time, talking pleasantly with some energetic

laughter thrown in. He tried to hate them because they were enjoying themselves. He collected some hate, aimed it, and tossed it, then knew right away it was just a boomerang. There was no one to hate but himself.

It's hard to believe that David Goodis could get any more depressing than he's already been in his other books I've read so far, but this one takes the cake to date. Written during the last leg of his career, This book introduces us to the sad couple James and Cora Bevan, dropping us right into their marriage, as they try to mend it while on holiday in a Jamaican resort. James is an insomniac, suicidal, impotent alcoholic who drinks all day because he can't seem to get his wiife to enjoy sex with him, and Cora might have a history of abuse in her past and also still struggles with her sexual dysfunction. She seems to have some hidden desires to get roughed up by a hairy man, and James doesn't do that for her. A series of adventures in the Jamaican slum outside of the hotel might change things.

Unfortunately, although the novel still sported Goodis's fascinating and poetic prose that I've come to love and the story could've been pretty interesting, this one was a hard one to get through. I really liked the flashbacks and it has a great first chapter. But eventually, it felt like he was trying a bit to hard in his writing and characterizations, and many times, it just came out as rambling, repetitive, and on-the-nose, and the attempt to write in Jamaican patois was just awkward. And man, was the dialogue plodding! But the biggest reason why it was so difficult to read was because of the character of James. Now I understand that noir usually features so pretty unlikeable characters, but James was ridiculous! Talk about a dick! He was so annoying with all of his self-pitying and being a constant downer in every conversation he had. I just couldn't take it sometimes and just put the book down on many occasions. The best part was the James/Cora backstory and their relationship, I wish that was focused on a bit more. The story is pretty similar to Street of No Return (which was written a year before this one), where a man that's hit rock bottom, travels

through the gutter for redemption, but was done a lot better in that previous novel, and the protagonist was a lot more engaging.

Whew, this one was a downer! I think I'll read some Hap and Leonard now as a pick me up! Goodis is still one of my favorite novelists, he seemed like he bled his demons out onto the page, or at least got wine-drunk and threw up all over it, and I love continuing to make my way through his fascinating work.

What I think this calls for is a gin and tonic. Or it might be a good idea to fill a swimming pool with gin and just dive in. But gin doesn't quite fit this mood. What would you say fit this mood? The diving part of it is fine. Let's make it a high dive, say a few hundred feet up with rocks at the bottom, a collection of nice sharp rocks.

GRADE: C

OF TENDER SIN by David Goodis

"It began with a shattered dream"

This awesome opening line sets the tone for this brooding, melancholy, fever-dream of a novel, par

for the course for a David Goodis book. The book is a bit more bizarre than anything else I've read by Goodis, and it follows normal, working square Alvin Darby, who, in bed one night, has a nervous breakdown and begins to be haunted by and obsessed with platinum blonde hair. The cause of this might be his recurring memory of the blonde hair of his older sister, who he was obsessed with when he was a child. This naturally affects his relationship with his brunette wife Vivian, who can't seem to understand why for weeks, Alvin has been unable to get it up and make love to her. After his breakdown, things get worse after Alvin overhears Vivian on the phone with another man, and he journeys out, with incestual memories and murder on his mind, onto the snowy streets of Philly's Skid Row; streets filled with alcohol, cocaine, flophouses, blackmailers, and gold-digging tramps with platinum blonde hair.

“Winter was gray and mean upon the city and every night was a package of cold bleak hours, like the hours in a cell that had no door.”

If this sounds to you like a real downer of a book, then you're right, it is. But that's what you should expect from the poet of despair, David Goodis. But as usual his writing is so poetic and evocative, you can't help but he riveted, and eager to follow the main character as he falls deeper into darkness. If you read a Goodis book expecting a standard noir, you'll be pleasantly surprised or terribly disappointed. His novels never have standard villains like crime bosses or serial killers, but most of the antagonizing comes from the inner demons of the protagonists themselves. The action and suspense in Of Tender Sin is more emotional and psychological, with the main character struggling to confront his paranoia, fetishes, sexual insecurities, and feelings of helplessness. In this way, the book reminded me a lot of my favorite Stanley Kubrick movie, Eyes Wide Shut, that dealt with a very similar journey for the main character. This book feels like it was written in a few nights of inspired, manic writing sessions, where I can imagine Goodis typing away in the late hours, binging on wine, whiskey, and cigarettes. This quality makes the plotting feel a bit rushed and uneven but it also gives the book a very earnest, energized feel. The book probably has the very best prose that I've read so far in a Goodis novel, with passages just pulsing with mood and imagery.

"Under the blanket the outline of her body was slender and displayed a certain innocence, a precious quality far more significant than the elegance of her form. She seemed to radiate kindness and essential goodness, and Darby, trying to measure the value of her, told himself it was immeasurable."

GRADE: A-

STREET OF NO RETURN by David Goodis

Goodis is known for writing gloomy books, and this is definitely one of them. It starts at the bottom and stays there. Whitey was once a famous singer whose throat gets beat to shreds after he refuses to 

let go of his love for dancer and gangster's girl, Celia. Now he's a down-and-out drunk living on Skid Row for seven years and going nowhere. One night, he decides to actually go somewhere and finds himself on a dark adventure in the Philly "Hellhole" neighborhood on one eventful night. 

You can't help but feel sympathy for Whitey knowing what he's been through and to root for him now that he's finally found a purpose. And although he's prone to rambling, Goodis really knows how to evoke an atmosphere, and knows how to give a voice to characters who are at their lowest point.

"...yesterday could never really be discarded, it was always a part of now. There was just no way to get rid of it. No way to push it aside or throw it into an ash can, or dig a hole and bury it. For all buried memories were nothing more than slow-motion boomerangs, taking their own sweet time to come back. This one had taken seven years."

GRADE: B+

THE BURGLAR by David Goodis

This novel by David Goodis follows Nat Harbin, a man leading a Philadelphia burglary gang. He's efficient and professional, and is  dedicated to protecting Gladden, the daughter of a dead friend and  

a member of his crew. But things get complicated once the mysterious Della comes into his life.

Lean, mean, and terribly bleak, once this story starts moving it's pretty hard to break away from it until it's haunting ending! This ending is one of the best I've ever read. This was my first novel by the nearly forgotten David Goodis and it won't be my last.

Example of Goodis's poetic bleakness:

“He couldn’t speak. The thing that crushed down on him was the sum weight of all the years, and her voice was a lance cutting through it, breaking it all up and showing him it added up to nothing but a horrible joke he had played on himself.”

GRADE: A-