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+