Customer Reviews

American Pulp

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Pulp" stories/fiction/magazines are defined by a specific era and form of American literature. In the Introduction, the editors state this, that the period was from about 1920 to about 1950, then proceed to say most of the stories were cliched and godawful. OK, that's fine, but surely you've collected some of the cliche-lite, not-so-god-awful ones, right? Wrong! The collection of stories is from the 50's to the late 90's, AFTER the pulp era. Are there Victorian novels written in the 60's? Surely there were many that appeared Victorian, but that is after the period is defined. I was looking for stories from that era, the godawful and the brilliant.

Look at this quote on Amazon...

"Ingram
Collects the best American crime stories ever published, culled from the pulp magazines of the thirties, forties, and fifties and featuring such titles as ""Dime Detective,"" ""Black Mask,"" and ""The Shadow."" Original."

What the hell?!?!? This has NOTHING to do with this collection. There a handful of stories from the 30's through the 50's, and a ton from the 80's and 90's. Totally misleading and disappointing - not the collection I had hoped for.

Would it have been detestable to gather up a few dozen great stories from that era and actually publish a definitive American Pulp collection?

This anthology has a number of stories from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, which are well outside the range of time when anything which could reasonably be called pulp fiction was published. Some of these stories are bad beyond belief. The editorial introductions lack all discernment, and the editors can't seem to tell the good from the unbelievably horrendous. Some of the stories are good, notably the one by David Goodis, but overall the quality is low. The book seems to have been thrown together to capitalize on the movie Pulp Fiction. You'd be well advised not to waste your time or your money on this.

OK, so the title is misleading, these aren't really pulp stories. Does that mean they're not good? Not at all, these are excellent crime stories. If what you're looking for is low-rent pulp fiction, then look elsewhere, because these are good stories by good authors. If you really want to read bad fiction, then I just don't know what to tell you.

Excellent introduction to the pulp fiction writers of the middle third of the 20th Century. This has a nice variety of authors and an excellent blend of styles and stories. Well worth the price of admission.