The Big Clock [Paperback]

Kenneth Fearing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1980

George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking, unscrupulous journalist working for tyrannical Earl Janoth's media empire. And he's involved with the wrong woman - his boss's mistress, Pauline Delos. One day, as Stroud escorts Pauline home, he spies his boss returning from a trip. The next day, Pauline is found dead in her apartment. Janoth knows someone saw him enter Pauline's apartment on the night of the murder; he knows it must have been the man Pauline was seeing on the side; but he doesn't know his identity. To get his hands on the man and pin the crime on him, Janoth assigns his best investigative reporter and most trusted employee to track him down: George Stroud...

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A brilliantly dark and menacing tale.' CATHOLIC HERALD 'You'll be hard pushed to find a better noir thriller.' BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Kenneth Fearing (1902-1961) was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Voted wittiest boy and class pessimist in high school, he moved to New York City after graduating from the University of Wisconsin. He published several well-received volumes of poetry in addition to his books. THE BIG CLOCK is his most famous novel and was filmed twice, first in 1948, and then again in 1987. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harpercollins (January 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060805005
• ISBN-13: 978-0060805005
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,515,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A First-Rate Thriller!, June 15, 2004

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Big Clock (Hardcover)

This book is first-rate. Who cares if it was first published in 1946? It's just as fresh now as it was then. For such a little book it has everything - irony, satire, unique plot, and suspense. The book has a sense of urgency as you read it because each of the chapters is written in the first person, but the chapters are not the first-person of the same character. A number of different characters are highlighted in this way, and this gives a curious sense of really getting to know the characters quickly. The book has a journalistic slant, and the main character, George Stroud, is placed in the position of trying to find himself as he is a key player in what turned out to be a murder of the woman that he had just spent the weekend with. George knows who the killer actually is, and he also knows that if this killer finds out who he George is, he will be silenced as the killer will want to shift blame to him. George is racing against the clock to keep his own identity secret and to save his life. - A very good noir novel.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clever plot, May 27, 2006

By 

Neal J. Pollock (VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Big Clock (Hardcover)

This is a suspense thriller rather than a mystery or whodunnit. It's structured like Wilkie Collins' 19th century "The Moonstone" with chapters presented in the 1st person by various people. Similarly, it has the interesting feature of having different characters' views of the same individual. While the details are a bit dated (the low prices of things are amazing), the plot is not, & the author succeeds admirably in making it a real page-turner. I stayed up to the wee hours to finish it. It's a bit hard-boiled in languaging & has the clock metaphor which didn't really do much for me. Also, he mentions "her Adam's Apple" -- not anatomically correct. IMHO though the art aspect is great, especially Louise Patterson. Her chapter is brilliant! Overall this book is a fun, fast-paced, read. Enjoy!

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder, modernism, and mass culture, July 24, 2006

By 

Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Big Clock (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

The basis for the Ray Milland film of the same name, and its 80s remake with Kevin Costner NO WAY OUT, Kenneth Fearing's THE BIG CLOCK is one of the most famous and most ingenious noir thrillers of the 30s and 40s. A magazine publisher much like Henry Luce has murdered his mistress in a rage; his top aide convinces him to pin it on the last man to see the woman alive (whose face and name the publisher does not know). They enlist the help of the editor of the publishing house's crime magazine to lead the manhunt--a man who happens to be the very one for whom they're searching. The existential implications of engaging in a manhunt for yourself do not seem to escape Fearing, but his feat with this work is to expand even beyond that. The publication house which forms the novel's central locale brings out magazines that cover almost every aspect of modern mass culture, from news to business to Hollywood to true crime. And, stepping even beyond that, because the novel's key figure also collects the art of an obscure painter (which becomes crucial to the central mystery), THE BIG CLOCK also interrogates the ways in which high art is itself dependent upon mass culture. Sometimes Fearing's book is too ambitious for its own good (the multiple narrator trick is not handled as deftly as you'd like), but on the whole its not only a tight little thriller but it also manages to engage intelligently with some of the most important social and cultural premises of its day. This is a book that greatly deserved to be rediscovered by NYRB.