Manhattan Love Song [Paperback]

Cornell Woolrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006

"Nothing beats a tale of fatalistic dread by the supreme master of suspense, Cornell Woolrich. His novels and hundreds of short stories define the essence of noir nihilism."-Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

The father of modern noir first wanted to be the second F. Scott Fitzgerald. This 1932 novel brilliantly showcases Cornell Woolrich's transition from modernist to pulp master, as the reader follows a young Manhattan couples' tragic fall from grace.

Cornell Woolrich reinvented suspense fiction for the twentieth century. For four decades hundreds of his stories appeared in popular American pulp magazines while motion picture directors as varied as Hitchcock and Truffaut memorably translated his work into such classic suspense films as Rear Window and The Bride Wore Black. He died, alone in a Manhattan hotel room, in 1968.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This 1932 novel presages Woolrich's emergence as a noir star, and it finds him exploring suitably dark relationship themes. Blow past unhappily married narrator Wade's melodramatic first encounter with mobbed-up party girl Bernice Pascal on the pre-Depression Manhattan streets, and the story soon settles into a snappy Jazz Age essay of the many crimes lonely, deluded hearts willingly commit. Although Wade's sardonic jibes and cocky narcissism feel downright contemporary as he obsessively pursues his dangerous dame, Woolrich displays classic descriptive gifts when showing readers a moon looming "like a gilt thumbtack nailing the blue plush carpet that was the sky closer to the floor of heaven," and later, "a natty fellow who looked as though he'd had his clothes poured over him hot, and then allowed to harden." In a new introduction, Francis M. Nevins contends the novel "meant so much to [Woolrich] that he resurrected elements from it several times during his later career." Even if this is a minor work, noir fans will find plenty in it to enjoy. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

From the 1930s until his death in 1968, Cornell Woolrich riveted the reading public with his unparalled mystery, suspense, and horror stories. Classic films like Hitchcock's Rear Window and Trauffaut's The Bride Wore Black and novels like Night has a Thousand Eyes and Rendezvous in Black earned Woolrich epithets like "the twentieth century's Edgar Allen Poe" and "the father of noir."

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Pegasus Books; 1st Pegasus edition (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933648074
• ISBN-13: 978-1933648071
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,734,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A neglected masterpiece., November 26, 2006

By 

Michael G. "mikefromrochester" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Manhattan Love Song (Paperback)

As I read this fascinating page turner of a novel, I had to keep reminding myself that it was first published way back in 1932. The writing in Manhattan Love Song is so up to date, it could have been crafted last week.
I don't want to reveal too much about the plot itself because, just as in all Cornell Woolrich fiction, suspense is a key element. No, it's more than a key element, it is ubiquitous, permeating each page.

The narrative starts off as a romance. A "low rent" romance, but a romance nonetheless. It rapidly transitions to a comic romp, albeit one with decidedly sinister undertones. Then it takes the form of a bizarre murder mystery. Throughout all this, Woolrich never misses a beat. He takes the reader from one genre to the next with the greatest of ease.

Both the dialogue and the descriptive prose are consistently as smart as could be. The themes addressed are standard Cornell Woolrich fare. The ecstasy and agony of love and the burden of psychic pain so intense it can only be alleviated by "the merciful release of death".
Manhattan Love Song is an outstanding novel. A very enthusiastic 5 stars. Don't miss it.

4.0 out of 5 stars decent hard-boiled pulp noir, October 29, 2011

By 

Matthew Farrell (Tempe, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green Ice (Paperback)

An ex-con isn't paroled an hour before people he knew start turning up dead. As the body count grows, more and more he's on the line for it, and it's a race to find out who's setting him up before he takes the fall.

This is a decent hard-boiled thriller. It moves at a brisk clip, and keeps you interested. While I've read better in the genre, I've certainly read worse, too.

My main complaint is the editing in this edition. It's wretched: there's a glaring typo pretty much every other page. Of course, you could argue that such a thing lends to the "pulp feel" of the novella.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars EARLY WOOLRICH, July 8, 2007

By 

Milan Simich - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manhattan Love Song (Paperback)

This is early Woolrich, setting the stage for what would be become, in my opinion, some of the best 'crime' 'mystery' 'noir' writing in American 20th Century Literature.