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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
bleak noir set in 1950s Jamaica, April 29, 2007
This review is from: The Wounded and the Slain (Mass Market Paperback)
David Goodis's noir novels have been described as "suicide notes." "The Wounded and the Slain" is no exception. If you like your plots bleak and your anti-heroes in extremis, with lots of heavy psychological and philosophical musing, Goodis is the noir writer for you.
Action is not the main point here. The detective-story plot, involving murder and blackmail, doesn't really get going until about halfway through the book. Goodis's main purpose is to present us with a character study of a white-collar alcoholic, his repressed wife, and the misery that plays out between them in an exotic locale.
James and Cora Bevan are a couple on the rocks. James began their marriage with a healthy libido, but Cora found sex revolting and painful. Cora tried at first to meet James's needs, but it was always a strain and they gradually gave up on intimacy with eachother. To make things worse, they don't have kids because Cora had two miscarriages. In despair, before he became impotent, James turned to a prostitute, with tragic results.
Now they are attempting a geographic cure, in Jamaica. Wallowing in guilt, James seems poised to drink himself to death, while Cora finds herself attracted to another man. Cora knows, however, that even if she responded to the new guy's overtures, sooner or later he would want intimacy with her. She would be unable to meet his sexual needs any more than she can meet James's. As for James, he seems to have learned nothing from the tragic results of his slumming with the prostitute. Or maybe feels compelled to repeat that disaster. Because soon, he makes a night-time journey to a nightmarish sailors' bar in the slums of Jamaica, where the real horror begins...
The strengths of this book, for me, were the portrait of the seedy side of Jamaica and the character studies of the people James meets there. The low-life bar, the street full of shacks with no numbers on them, a hell house swelling with ganja smoke, a muddy hole covered in planks full of leaking water and rats, all form a dark and disturbing contrast to the ordered and civilized world of the tourist hotel where James and Cora begin the novel.
The Jamaicans are presented sympathetically and with depth. I was particularly impressed with Inspector Archinroy, the implacable, multi-racial policeman in charge of investigating the murder that becomes central to the latter half of the book.
Over the course of the novel, James and Cora are completely transformed by their trip to the dark side of Jamaica. For many mystery novelists, even of the noir variety, this would call for a redemptive ending. But Goodis avoids tying things up neatly for us. By the end we are left teetering, still wondering where the next blow will fall.
The Hard Case Crime edition of this classic fifties novel is reasonably priced and the cover art by Glen Orbik is a pleasure.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Depressing but hopeful, June 6, 2007
This review is from: The Wounded and the Slain (Mass Market Paperback)
James and Cora Bevan have a miserable marriage. They blame themselves for the problems in it (sexual and otherwise), but invariably look for outside solutions to their despair (he the bottle, she another man) forgoing communication entirely. After nine years of this, they've almost completely given up on happiness, but have decided to take a vacation in Jamaica in hopes of one last chance.
The first chapter of The Wounded and the Slain, author David Goodis (who is probably best known for Dark Passage and Shoot the Piano Player, films based on his novels) shows the Bevans wallowing in their self-pity, but also shows the love they still feel for each other. It's a difficult chapter to read, and I nearly drowned in the monotonous sustained self-loathing (especially from James's point of view) pouring from the page. Luckily, by the middle of the second chapter, things got more interesting.
Not happier, mind you, just more interesting.
The Wounded and the Slain is not a pleasant read. It is easy to understand why it has been out of print since its first publication over fifty years ago: I can see potential publisher after potential publisher say, "Who would want to buy this?" because if you are unfamiliar with the depths of human misery, David Goodis will take you on a guided tour. It takes a publisher with a distinctive vision to look past its dismal sales potential and see its literary and historical merits.
The last book that got me this depressed was Chris Ware's graphic novel, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, but Ware's medium allows for the use of images to get his point across, where Goodis does it all with words. (Ware's title is misleading, as well, whereas Goodis slaps his intentions right on the title page.)
Goodis's skill at uncommon description is unparalleled. You need only step back from the page for a moment to realize that he is not just telling you about people -- he is putting you inside them! The pivotal bar fight in chapter three of The Wounded and the Slain is the best example of this talent: as each blow landed, I knew what each individual was thinking and feeling at that instant, and Goodis deftly switches among the array of characters. At the end, I felt as if I had been in the middle of the fracas, that every punch had not only been thrown by me, but also had landed on me. It was exhausting, but it was also a revelation: no author had ever gotten me so completely involved ever before.
But despite bringing his readers face to face with such a tragic cadre of silent sufferers, Goodis thankfully cannot resist adding a final note of hope. Allowing for the possibility of redemption, showing us that these characters do indeed have other sides to them, keeps The Wounded and the Slain from being just a succession of scenes in a morose milieu, and makes the characters relatable, giving the book real emotional power.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More about a hard marriage than a Hard Case, November 6, 2009
This review is from: The Wounded and the Slain (Mass Market Paperback)
James and Cora Bevan are married, yet living separate lives. They take a trip to Jamaica to work on their marriage, but as usual James drinks too much and spends little time with his wife. He ventures into town, and his involvement in a bar fight leads to blackmail, extortion, and the wrong man ending up on death row.
The Wounded and the Slain is less about crime than many of the other books in the Hard Case Crime series. Though there is plenty of crime and violence, it is more the story of a relationship gone sour and one man's effort to find his humanity again.
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