Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s

Library of America Noir Collection #1

by Robert Polito (Editor), James M. Cain (Contributor), Horace McCoy (Contributor)

Evolving out of the terse and violent style of the pulp magazines, noir fiction expanded over the decades into a varied, innovative and profoundly influential body of writing. The eleven novels in The Library of America’s adventurous two-volume collection taps deep roots in the American literary imagination, exploring themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsessive passion, murder, and the disintegrating psyche. With visionary and often subversive force they create a dark and violent mythology out of the most commonplace elements of modern life.

James M. Cain’s pioneering novel of murder and adultery along the California highway, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), shocked contemporaries with its laconic toughness and fierce sexuality.

Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935) uses truncated rhythms and a unique narrative structure to turn its account of a Hollywood dance marathon into an unforgettable evocation of social chaos and personal desperation.

In Thieves Like Us (1937), Edward Anderson vividly brings to life the dusty roads and back-country hideouts where a fugitive band of Oklahoma outlaws plays out its destiny.

The Big Clock (1946), an ingenious novel of pursuit and evasion by the poet Kenneth Fearing, is set by contrast in the dense and neurotic inner world of a giant publishing corporation under the thumb of a warped and ultimately murderous chief executive.

William Lindsay Gresham’s controversial Nightmare Alley (1946), a ferocious psychological portrait of a charismatic carnival hustler, creates an unforgettable atmosphere of duplicity, corruption, and self-destruction.

I Married a Dead Man (1948), a tale of switched identity set in the anxious suburbs, is perhaps the most striking novel of Cornell Woolrich, who found in the techniques of the gothic thriller the means to express an overpowering sense of personal doom.

Disturbing, poetic, anarchic, punctuated by terrifying bursts of rage and paranoia and powerfully evocative of the lost and desperate sidestreets of American life, these are underground classics now made widely and permanently available.

Genres: Noir, Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Anthologies, Literature, Classics

990 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Robert Polito (born 1951) is an American academic, critic and poet. He has been Director of the Writing Program at The New School since 1992. He received the National Book Critics Circle Award and an Edgar Award for Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I'm giving this thing three stars, because of the six novels in here three I found too dull to get through, and the other three just totally blew my brains out with awesome.

The three great ones served me that ever-helpful reminder about the importance of Balls in Fiction. There's always been some lame, cringing part of me that believes fiction needs to be careful, responsible, fact-checked, and intelligent, and preferably about boring, unhappy adults having subtle but poignant though not-too-melodramatic interactions with each other. I really don't know where I got that idea since this isn't what I like to read -- probably it's from flipping through my mom's New Yorkers at a tender age (pssst! parents! don't leave those things out!). Fortunately, there's a huge body of literature out there frequently reminding me that this notion is crap. So much great fiction's great because it has BALLS! Not cringing, careful, finely-crafted works of emotional complexity and nuance, but brash, bizarre stories of imaginative fearlessness that come from big BALLS -- or, for the rest of us maybe, guts. Red, throbbing, gristly, fat wet gross GUTS! The guts to put nasty people, rough sex, improbable events, zoo animals, sideshow freaks, vile murder, and whatever else you can think of into your story. Of course, if you write that stuff, you're writing genre fiction, which explains why all these books were grouped as "Crime Novels," a categorization that's difficult to explain otherwise.... but hey.

I'll be brief (or not):

The Postman Always Rings Twice is raw, undistilled, visceral noir at its best, and anyone who enjoys this kind of thing's probably already read it. The characters in this story are gritty and mean and so insistently physical you can see them in front of you. They're not the nicest people, but they're definitely human, there's no arguing with that. The sexual energy between the two is described so urgently and so well that you understand why someone would kill for it; you're ready to yourself, it all seems so real. I loved the hell out of this, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone who isn't into crime fiction.

While Postman's obviously of the genre it birthed, it's a lot harder to place They Shoot Horses, Don't They? there. I guess it's a crime novel, but it's also kind of not. This is one of the most bizarre books I've ever read. It really reminded me of this crazy 1980s novel called The Pit that I got at the Bins years ago, about an est-style encounter group gone horribly, horribly wrong..... Anyway, I'd heard this title before, probably in connection with the movie, and I always got it mixed up with I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and imagined the question being asked by a tearful child in a frightened, pathetic voice: "They shoot horses -- sniff! sob! -- don't they?" WRONG! That's not it at all; I don't think it gives too much away to reveal that the emphasis in the sentence goes on the word "horses." Try it out, you'll see the difference.... Anyway, the structure's a bit gimmicky and forced -- it's all flashbacks in the killer's mind while the judge is imposing his sentence in enormous letters between the chapter breaks -- but the story itself is one of the most insane, brilliant concepts I think I've ever come across. The whole thing takes place at a month-long Depression-era dance marathon. I SAID: The whole thing takes place at a MONTH-LONG DEPRESSION-ERA DANCE MARATHON!!!! That's the craziest thing I've ever heard of!!! It's an event where the couples are only allowed ten-minute breaks for sleeping, eating, and bathing, and just have to dance -- and, once a night, race in a sickeningly brutal derby event -- for a MONTH! Some physical and mental exhaustion, with sundry hijinks, does ensue. I loved the audacity of this book for existing. I think it's terrific, and I'm pretty sure most other people who read it will freak out from it too.

Nightmare Alley also completely exploded my mind. This was one where the gimmicky structure of Major Arcana tarot cards as chapter headings -- used probably before and definitely since to usually tedious effect -- worked. This book had it ALL! I mean, it really had everything. It starts out in a carnival, and all the subject matter is so over-the-top and yet the description's all conveyed so well so you actually feel you're consuming this stuff with your senses, that the result is this incredibly successful cocktail of cartoony fantasy and an almost realistic novel. I think he sort of lost control of the plot somewhat after a point, but it's still a great novel. This guy is a talented writer, and I was sorry to hear from Wikipedia that he was a more-tragic-even-than-usual alcoholic who eventually killed himself. Plus, his wife ditched him for C. S. Lewis, which must have sucked (note: do not become pulp writer, especially if you are a drinker, as it never ends well).... Anyway, like I said, this book had everything. Everything! A wonderful, freakulant carnival (the greatest carnival in books or movies, that I've ever come across)! Desire! Sex! Ambition! Human depravity! Freudian hang-ups! Magic tricks! Spiritualism! Deception! Psychiatry! Industry! Tragedy! Etc! There's even a magical, labor-agitating Negro, for reasons I was not swift enough to grasp, except that this was the point where I actually yelled: "Holy shit! This book really does have everything!"

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Nightmare Alley were especially great because they both managed to present extremely bleak views of human nature and modern life, using metaphors that were the most amusing and entertaining thing ever. I loved these books! I really did!

But I did not love -- sorry Kirsti -- the other three books in this anthology. Thieves Like Us I could tell was objectively pretty good, but I just wasn't interested in convicts on the lam. Maybe some other time? It seemed so prosaic after the dance marathon! Maybe if I'd read more of it I would've gotten absorbed, but I didn't stick around long enough to find out -- I got out of there, hit the road and kept running. Similar thing with The Big Clock. You know how a lot of the time it takes a few pages of grating disorientation before all the little gears engage, and the whole mechanism starts working for you? Well, that just didn't really happen for me here. I wasn't "seeing" anything, and the other books I'd read in here had spoiled me. The beginning of the novel was just words on a page, and I didn't know who the characters were or what was going on or where anyone was, and if I'd had any reason to keep reading I'm sure I could've gotten my bearings, but as it was I just impatiently let it wind down and ran on to the carnival.

I Married a Dead Man I actually read quite a bit of, but then I suddenly stopped and asked myself, "Why?" I felt like someone drinking a nauseatingly sweet drink based on some promise that there'd be a great big shot of bourbon at the bottom of my glass. I was choking on all this saccharine pink stuff, and then finally I just thought, well am I that hard up for bourbon? I am not. So I bailed....

All in all, though, this is a great collection, and the stories I skipped are probably good if you're in the mood, which I wasn't. I mean, how many crime novels of the thirties and forties does a girl need to read at once? The ones that I liked were magnificent, and made me feel well-fed and enthusiastic. They also made me feel like murdering people who are in my way! Except not really, because then I'll get sent to the electric chair, and no one likes that.

I will go on the record as saying that while I'm against capital punishment, I suspect disuse of the electric chair has had dreadful collateral consequences for the crime novel genre. There is just a certain lurid allure and dramatic tension lacking from concern about life imprisonment, or even endless appeals that drag on for decades.... Now, I'm not suggesting we return to the practice of swiftly executing the lusty, hardboiled murderers of the thirties and forties. That just isn't necessary, as there's plenty of extant fiction from then left for us to enjoy.

[Jill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am doing a bit of re-reading in this last month of the year and have returned to this collection of stories that I read in 2010.

If you have any interest at all in the noir thrillers of the mid-20th century, this is the book for you. It contains six stories of such darkness and despair that you will be looking over your shoulder for the specter of death and misfortune sneaking up behind you.

Each of these carefully selected short stories has been brought to the screen in various forms.........even if you have seen the films, it is worth your time to read the originals. These are the masterpieces of the genre and be warned....there are no happy endings here. Highly recommended.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Noir In The Library Of America

In 1997, the Library of America published two volumes of American crime novels written in a noir style. Robert Polito, an editor, author, and scholar of noir literature selected the contents of the volumes. The first volume, which I am reviewing here, included six novels written in the 1930's and 1940's while the second volume included an additional five novels from the 1950's. The Library of America has the commendable goal of presenting the best and most representative American writing in its various forms, including fiction, poetry, drama, philosophy, history, news reporting, travel and more, in uniform editions. The LOA's publication of these two extensive collections showed an understanding that this once critically rejected form of genre writing has made important contributions to American literature. I became interested in noir about four years ago and have enjoyed exploring the genre.

It is difficult to pin down what "noir" means, and the six novels in this collection show that the style cannot be reduced to a formula. Each of the novels in the book center upon murder, and most are recounted from the standpoint of the perpetuator. Although the writing varies by author, the style of each book is in the tough, short, colloquial style called "hardboiled." The Depression forms the backdrop of each book in this collection, but the settings otherwise vary widely. Three books are set predominantly in diverse areas of California (a wealthy suburb, a shabby country roadside restaurant, and a grimy section of Hollywood). One book is set in corporate New York City and in its bedroom suburbs, while another book is set in back roads and small towns of Oklahoma and Texas. The last of the books is set primarily in the world of the travelling carnival shows touring the South. Atmosphere and place are central in each of the books.

The books differ from many of the sprawling novels written today in that they are short and focused. They generally include a limited rather than a seemingly endless group of characters. In developing the crime and the characters, each novel includes a controlled range of themes. There is much to be gained from this narrowing and developing of scope compared to many long and wandering recent books I have read. The main character in each book tends to be a lonely, alienated outsider. The individual books explore themes such as guilt, greed, evil, loyalty, self-identity, discontentment, exploiation, and attempts at redemption. Each of the books in this collection has a serious, thoughtful underpinning.

Each of the books included here has been made into film, frequently more than once. The books range from the familiar to the obscure. James Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice", which opens the collection, is the best-known work which has come to be deservedly recognized as a literary classic. The book tells the story of a wild 24 year old drifter, Frank Chambers, who falls in love with Cora and plots with her to kill her husband. The writing is vivid and descriptive, full of power, force, and raw sexuality. It is stunning short work, almost impossible to put down.

Horace McCoy's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" has become well known in large part from the late 1960s movie starring Jane Fonda. This short book is set in a Depression-era dance marathon in Hollywood. This book is easily the darkest and most pessimistic work in this collection, and rivals any other work in American literature that I know in its unrelieved grimness.

The remaining four books are less well-known. Kenneth Fearing was a poet who wrote of the Depression. His novel "The Big Clock" is set in corporate New York City and develops the tension between working for an organization doing a job one dislikes and pursuing one's goals and dreams. Edward Anderson's "Thieves Like Us" is set among robbers and escaped convicts in Oklahoma. It includes a love story I found effective together with a portrayal of the nature of loyalty, well placed and misplaced. William Gresham's "Nightmare Alley" is a story of the tawdry life of the American carny, and of the rise and fall of an unscrupulous carny magician and fraudster. The final book, Cornell Woolrich's "I Married a Dead Man" is a dark work about the nature of personal identity, living a lie, and the consequences of guilt.

From its beginning in pulp magazines and stories, noir became a form of writing that at its best evolved into literature. Readers who enjoy noir or who want to explore the breadth of American literature will enjoy this collection.

Robin Friedman

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never been a huge fan for American literature (although Poe and Lovecraft were both American citizens, but still) however, through various novels from the 1930s to 1950s Noir/hard boiled genre, I get a taste of American literature which I can enjoy and adore; in this series of meaty, solidly written short novels with human's desire, fear and despair which feels very down-to-earth and real.

Reviews on the stories I read:

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

The formal of the story is a bit strange but there is nothing you can't get used to. The description of estrangement and alienation among young American lower class people from the 1930s really does remind me of The Stranger. Although it is difficult to understand why the characters do what they do in the story. I get that the guy is indifferent to everything happens around him and the girl is depressed (given what she had been through, who can blame her?) but why would they be driven to do what they did in the very end? I don't understand. 3 stars.

Here's an insightful review of this novella, written by Nenia.

The Big Clock

I'm embarrassed to admit I don't understand why the ending would turn out the way it is. Before this ending arrives, I am right there with the characters and I fully enjoy how the story is told and how the main character must keep himself one step ahead of the investigating team to save his own hide. The Noir atmosphere is great, the story is nearly written and the tension is so thick you can choke in it. However in the end the investigation is suddenly called off and the real murderer is suddenly found dead, so the main character is off the hook? I can't even understand why things have turned out that way. 3 stars.

Small note: I am rather amused by how the characters (people who lived in the 1930s) can't even bring themselves to say the gay-word even when it is exactly what they are talking about.

Nightmare Alley

Who would have guessed Tarot cards and the Major Aranca can be used on a Noir? I love how this story is construed, I like how the author takes us to a nightmarish trip to the gloomy world of circus, freak show, false psychics/mentalists and crime. I also like how the themes of fate/inability to escape fate, madness, karma, betrayal are brought up through the story telling, I like the way the author described how ambition and greed destroy the main character--though he pretty much deserves every bit of it, his downfall is still one fucked up hell of nightmarish ride to read about. I like how the mentality of different characters are shaped and described, I even like how the femme fatale is written in the story despite of the old cliches of 'a woman is evil because she had been raped once'.

Mr. Gresham wrote like a man who knows his characters, their motivations and the harsh world they live in by heart. I also need to point out how much I like the author's tone, it is tough, no-nonsense, straight to the point and merciless.

Is the ending a bit predictable? Yes, but everything else within the story makes up for that. Plus I really like this story although some parts of it do tend to get a bit dry and uninteresting, and the words used by the author are a bit difficult to understand at times, still I look forward to re-read it. 4.5 stars.

Favorite quote:

"Miss Leary, do you mean to insinuate that I should go encouraging homo-sex-uality amongst these corpses?"

Of course not, LOL.


I Married a Dead Man , by Cornell Woolrich.

This is the first time I read this novella in English and damn, it is good. I really love how Mr. Woolrich wrote his female characters in different books and how those characters are formed with their own strength and weakness, I especially enjoy reading about the romance in this story, how Mr. Woolrich handled the subtle changes of emotion and the build-up for the romance, the silent battle of will between a man and a woman who are falling in love but at the same time having to hold things back from each other for their own reason; and the inescapable web of lies and half truth at the very end, superb. However, I'm totally confused by the story's ending, I really can't get it. 4 stars.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

It is a re-read, and Mr. Cain's writing is great, sharp and powerful......what a shame that hardly anybody can write like him nowadays, expects authors such as Lawrence Block and the guy who wrote The Devil All the Time (can't recall his name, sorry), etc. 4 stars.

Thieves Like Us

Never finish this story so can't comment much, but I noticed the author's writing isn't as good as those of James M. Cain's. No star due to DNF.

[Sasha]

my god it's a whole trove of weird noir

Rec'd by my new friend Jason. There are a few volumes of these (search Polito) and I'd think anything I haven't already read would be a good candidate for future noir fixes.

[Kristopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most immediately, I'll be reading Thieves Like Us, The Big Clock, Nightmare Alley, and I Married a Dead Man from this collection. Then I'll be rereading Postman and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

UPDATE: I finished "Thieves Like Us." It was quite impressive, actually. Anderson's Depression-era crime novel follows three bank robbers (particularly the youngest one, Bowie) as they escape from jail and start a crime spree.

What's particularly fascinating about this novel is its relation to the "hardboiled" tradition. In some sense, Anderson's writing conforms to some of the stereotypes of Hammett and Cain's content. He follows criminals in a detached narrative style, replete with slang-filled, no-nonsense dialogue, indirect characterization, and unromantic relationships between men and women (with the requisite, healthy does of '30's sexism and racism). But Anderson manages to achieve those aspects of the hardboiled tradition in a lyrical writing style completely its own. Anderson is also to be commended for his ability to deftly and subtly comment on the role of pop culture in the popular crime narratives of the earlier part of this century. If you're looking for a gem of a Depression-era novel, this is a good bet.

UPDATE: On to "Nightmare Alley."......

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book to own. I'm still reading it, but will update this as I get through the included novels. These novels are desperate, intense, depressed, wild, carnal; they are America in the Great Depression, an America where morals are always being tested by the threat of starvation. It's as if the whole country were the soccer team whose airplane crashed in the Andes, battling its own hunger and its instinct towards cannibalism. These novels are truly the heirs of 19th century Naturalism, depicting charcters in terms of their internal drives and of the whirlwind of external forces.

The Postman Always Rings Twice: One of the best pulp novels of all time, by James M. Cain, to my taste the best of all the pulp writers.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? A depressing but intense novel by Horace McCoy, set in Depression-era L.A.

Thieves Like Us, by Edward Anderson, a novel following the adventures of Bowie Bowers, murderer and bankrobber. Though this is a big strained in its tough-guy prose, it is a fascinating read, a love story and a bit of a thriller as you travel from prison break to bankrobbery to hiding out with the crooks, hoping that they don't get caught, hoping they're smart enough not to try one more score....

The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing. I couldn't get through it.

Nightmare Alley, by William Lindsay Gresham. Reading it now. Experimental, multiple POV, stream-of-consciousness novel about the geeks (in the old sense of the word--a carny who bites off the heads of chickens) and freaks (the tattooed man, the electric woman, the miniature man, the muscle man etc.) who populate a carny. Ultimately, though, it's a deterministic novel about existential angst (the nightmare alley down which death chases us), the psychological roots of dysfunction, and the drives towards sex, power, acclaim. Each chapter is based upon one of the tarot cards of the major arcana (Hanged Man, Wheel of Fortune, etc.) It is a powerful, intense, wonderful novella.

I Married a Dead Man, by Cornell Woolrich. Haven't gotten to it yet....

[Bleak Mouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. And it includes forgotten or neglected noir greats like Horace McCoy, Edward Anderson, and Cornell Woolrich. Forget Hemingway, and read this stuff instead.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the wonderful the Library of America comes a treasure trove of six crime (or "noir") novels from the last century. The first is a stone classic, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James M. Cain. His first novel and the progenitor of the genre, the story that spawned so many more. We wouldn't have Patricia Highsmith or Jim Thompson without Cain. The other five are fascinating variations on the theme. Horace McCoy's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1935) is not really a crime story but still something of a coup in creating such an intense story set only in the claustrophobic stage of a Depression-era marathon dance. Thieves Like Us (1937) by Edward Anderson is the weakest of the collection but still interesting for its gritty realism, leftist politics, inescapable tragedy, and hard-boiled story told in multi-media fashion. The Big Clock (1946) by the multi-talented Kenneth Fearing creates a paranoid game of cat and mouse in which our protagonist is both. The daring and out there Nightmare Alley (1946), by William Lindsay Gresham (along with Postman the best story here), is a tour de force from within the narrow field of the carny and séance world. The next most famous author in the collection (after Cain) is Cornell Woolrich and his nightmarish I Married a Dead Man (1948) based on a theme that others have explored since. Perhaps not coincidentally, all of these were also adapted to film, sometimes under different titles (Thieves Like Us became They Live by Night (1950) and I Married a Dead Man was filmed as No Man of Her Own (1950)). Within this selection is a generous survey of what can be done in the field, showing how crime novels can overlap with literature.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm particularly curious about Cornell Woolrich, whom I've never read.

***

I've been meaning to read "I Married a Dead Man" since 96 or something, because I watched "Mrs. Winterbourne" every time it appeared on cable for a month.

Wow. This is freaking fabulous. Woolrich manages to strike exactly the right note with Patrice, her longing for this family, and this life, her love for her son, and her terror. The slowly building paranoia is shown in three similar short chapters, that are a text book for writers.

I can't wait to finish this, but also, I am filled with such dread. The suspense is amazing. And now I'm dying to see "No Man of Her Own" with Barbara Stanwyck. Weird, though, I'd have expected Hitchcock to have loved his writing.

***

Interesting ending. I have a logical problem with his reworked ending, but still, I loved it. I've got to read my Woolrich.

[Jared Colley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection of American Noir; it represents the genre at its best. Cain's novel, The Postman..., is simply my favorite of his work. There is something dark and existential about it; it makes sense that French crtitics would be the ones to name this type of narrative as "Noir". It's like if Camus were a product of the New Deal America or something. The other bright moment, for me, is K. Fearing's novel, The Big Clock. Unlike most pulp, this novel is outright hilarious; its mood and humor seem refreshing in some way. This is definitely one for the library...

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read three novels that were recommended by another review: "The Postman Always Rings Twice", "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Nightmare Alley". The first two were really exceptional reads: short, punchy, and not stories you would find anywhere else. Nightmare Alley was dragging for me to the point that I almost put it down but the final line is such a gut punch that I was staggered by how good it was.

[Zack Makepiece · Rating 5 out of 5]

An embarrassment of riches - a perfect collection of short novels. And not just a clearing house of familiar genre classics either, as this was the only place for years that you could get Edward Anderson's Thieves Like Us, and remains as of this writing the only place William Gresham's Nightmare Alley is in print in its original prose form. Neither the Anderson nor the Gresham have seen many printings, so this is the easiest way to read them, even if you can get all the others cheap and in paperback for a buck or two.

No sleuths, no 'mystery', no real 'capers' (in the Donald Westlake sense of the world) - there's nothing to be 'solved' because there is no solution for the situations into which the characters put themselves. Over and over in this book businesses, lives, marriages, and society collapse all around the novels' protagonists from broken promises, too much ambition, misplaced priorities, and the soft yield of temptation. Every book offers some unique bit of social criticism, innovative narrative techniques and novel structure, and/or great dollops of suspense/sleaze/nihilism/voyeurism.

James M. Cain's Postman remains one of the horniest, most desperate books ever, all voluptuous, moist pulchritude and spinning wheels. Horace McCoy's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is in some ways gimmicky, but with its growing-typeface-fast-forward-towards-judgement structure and brutally pessimistic female lead, it rampages to its bleak finish line with energy worthy of Jim Thompson. It's almost impossible to sto reading either of these first two books once they're started, and that really gets the collection off with a bang.

Thieves Like Us has been filmed twice (as They Live by Night and by Robert Altman under its original title) but, although both films are terrific, neither quite captures the novel's underlying theme of a hypocritical country of thieves. The most subtle, quiet book here, but in some ways the most tragic, as there is an actual sense of innocence lost.

Kenneth Fearing's Big Clock (watch for Freudian typos when typing that out) is primarily pleasurable from a prose/structure point of view - its shifting narrators give a sense of scope to what is the collection's most urban, upper class novel, its vices way more 'uptown' than the others. Still bleak and plenty sleazy, written with a flair appropriate to a moonlighting poet.

Nightmare Alley uses a lot of contemporary psychology to examine its manipulative, doomed protagonist, and while it is probably the most over-written of these novels (it is definitely the longest, mainly due to its flashback sequences) it also scales the highest heights of operatic carnival noir decay, has a scene or two worthy of Poe, and unlike the movie, it doesn't cop out at the end.

And finally, I Married a Dead Man is my favorite Cornell Woolrich - brilliantly written, with a great plot and a deft control of prose. This book has always seemed like a freaked-out Brontë novel to me, with its scuppered sense of domestic bliss.

Selected with a definite sense of purpose and offering plenty of variations on a theme, this is a terrific collection of 20th Century American fiction, and I'll take these books over anything written by Hammett, Chandler or the classic 'mystery' writers any day.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains six good-to-great hard-boiled pieces, all of which have been made into films, and at least two of them into two films. I reviewed five of these novels separately -- had read several previously and re-read them in this volume. I'm not sure if I read The Big Clock, as I don't have a review for it, but have seen the 1948 movie -- Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan -- and it was good! Might need to go back to be sure I've read it.

[Jennifer Barbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of some really great noir stories. Stand outs for me were of course Cain's POSTMAN..., THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?, and the fantastically twisted NIGHTMARE ALLEY (which was also a terrific film starring Tyrone Power).

[Professor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing collection of great books.

[Derek Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This covers 6 novels under one cover.
The 5 stars are not an average, but an inducement to pick up this remarkable collection of narratives that, in some deliciously tilted way, show who America was in the mid-20th century. On literary merit – what a condescending way to say it – on personal to me merit, they would average 4.
Top of the heap, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Horace McCoy's focused, infused look at a marathon of negated life, put in the context of the marathon dance contests of the '30s, a realm of blistered escape from life not that far from today's social collapse. Dancing for hours, days, more than a week to cadge enough to make it out the door to ... what? But the half-narrator finds a way to achieve a meaningful act that leads to his death by moralism. What he does is socially repugnant but humanly ... almost unavoidable. What's best is the relaxed, rambling dialogue, so human you could imagine the characters next to you on the couch.
Next in line, William Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley. His "hero" starts with a deliberate self-debauch of the spirit at a cheap carny sideshow, then moves slowly up the ladder to spiritualist fraud, all the while haunted by a blighted demon of spirit. The last page is one of the best ever, totally set up yet totally right.
Mid-range: The Big Clock and Thieves Like Us, both high 4-stars.
Once Clock gets off its ass from surrealist verbal stabs and settles down to plot, it's fine. An editor at a Conde-Nastish magazine outfit finds himself tangled in an impetuous murder. Chapters flip between first-person narratives of the various characters (too many given to the editor/observer, a narcissistic turd). The plot's gripping in an off-to-the-side way, but I don't think Kenneth Fearing knew page one about publishing or editing; none of that rings true.
Thieves threw me off at first, to the point where I laid it down and thought I wouldn't finish. A trio of ex-cons trade crime talk so jargon-happy that, to me, they make little sense. But when I picked it up again, the focus changing to dedicated bank robber Bowie and his teen love Keechie, it caught fire. Yes, they're damned, but by the times and circumstance and society. For some, there's no way out, not just because of where they are, but because of who they are that will insure they make the wrong choices. Edward Anderson imbues his outlaw characters with an inviolate loyalty to each other that's maybe too hardscrabble-idealistic.
Down in the moldy dustbin there's Cornell Woolrich's I Married a Dead Man. What an inexcusable pile of slop. According to the notes, it started as a short story, expanded into a novel. Which may explain the maudlin, pointless narrative by the wife at the beginning, and the incessant repetition of short phrases, as though they should gain power by heaping, but probably just to increase the word count. Good Moloch is this bad. Makes me wonder why Woolrich ever got popular on the noir circuit.
[I didn't read The Postman Always Rings Twice because I'd read it way back and seen both movies.]
This Library of America issue is beautifully done, on acid-free, last-forever paper as as thin as a mouse fart, but ... is that the proper way to present mid-century semi-pulp fiction? I mean, yellow it a bit, some dusting off at the edges?

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first five of these a few years ago, so it was nice to finally finish the whole collection here. Picked it up where I left off with the last one presented in the collection but otherwise these are in the order in which they appear in the collection.


I married a Dead Nan

Fine pacing, some intriguing elements of a tale about mistaken identities; it somewhat peters out after the first fifty pages.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Remains a classic: on this read-through, the sadism and the tight plot serve its warped protagonist and selfish characters well.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

Still one of the most chilling novels I have ever read: the absurdity of the dance contest, the sparks of brutality in a mocking paean to dreamers, a pace matching the swiftness of its main action (the dance contest); devastating and simple.

Thieves Like Us

Plods along between a jail break and living on the lam, but the heartbreak and desperation of the last third of the novel kicks things into a higher gear. Beyond the title phrase and some detailed descriptions of dilapidation there’s not much to savor here.

The Big Clock

Takes a bit of a running start to set things in motion, but it’s a swiftly paced and well-executed game of hide and seek. What thrills me about this one is the gradual tightening of the denouement, the abrupt conclusion, and the small fury of digs at man’s search for meaning in art and object.

Also don’t bother with the movie adaptation of this one they take the figurative title object at face value (ha ha) and put a literal big-ass clock in the climax of the movie. Absolutely ridiculous.

Nightmare Alley

My favorite of the bunch: still marvel at the structure.

Each chapter is subtitled with a tarot card from the Major Arcana that has some relevance to the themes/actions/imagery of the chapter.

Lots of shifts in perspective here to show without telling. A nice touch.

The rage, the resentment, the embittered notions of those who trick and those who are tricked—a morbid potboiler of a read.

Do bother with the 1948 adaptation of this one—despite some bowdlerization there’s flickers of the pure terror which wags this tale.

[Sooz]

I heard an interview with Guillmero del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water and the most excellent Spanish horror movie, The Devil's Backbone) about his 2021 movie Nightmare Alley in which he said it was based on an American noir book. I found Nightmare Alley in this collection and decided -as a means of mixing things up a little in choice of reading material- to take on all six novellas not just that particular one. I have actually read one of them -They Shoot Horses Don't They?- many years ago and have seen both film versions of The Postman Always Rings Twice.

The Postman Always Rings Twice ... everything is either swell or lousy according to the narrator. And just as the reader has to accept the descriptors of the era, one must let go of all current sensibilities and allow oneself to float in the noir atmosphere where there is little introspection or subtlety, where motivation is as simple as greed, revenge, lust or one of the other seven deadly sins and things are pretty much guaranteed to end badly.

Yeah ... I'm not sure 30's /40's noir is for me. I got bogged down in the third 'Thieves Like Us'. I'm going to take a break and we'll see.

[Steve C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book of six stories because I find the movies of this era fascinating, although the movies are somewhat modified and I assumed the books to be better. They are, and not by a little.

This book includes: The Postman Always Rings Twice, They Shoot Horses, Don't They, Thieves Like Us, The Big Clock, Nightmare Alley, and I Married a Dead Man.

Without a doubt, these are great stories and with the exception of The Big Clock, page turners. The last story I couldn't put down. The level of suspense in these stories is just what the reader wants . Anyone who has even a slight interest in the novels of this era need to read this book and its six stories, as well as anyone who loves suspense and crime novels.

[Kenzie Barnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly an interesting book that gives you plenty to read from. However, the difference in stories and range can be little off-putting, and the strange common thread between them all has the reader simply wanting the tale to end. Though they all seem to deal with crime, some do it better than others, making the book interesting if you want to sample the spectrum of writing during this time period. Certain stories stick out more than others, though that can be equated to the individual, so that it times the book does seem to drag. Overall, a fairly good read that helps introduce one to this genre and some of it's earlier works.

[Terence · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty great collection of essential American Noir. "The Killer Inside Me" is great, incredibly nihilistic and bleak. Patricia Highsmith's "Talented Mr. Ripley" is one of those I wanted to read for a while and was glad I did, way more deep and full of texture than the film would imply. Both "Pick-Up' and "Down There" blew me away, amazing! "Pick-Up" almost reminds me of "Hard Rain Falling" or something, and is just base level bleak in its outlook and almost almost isn't a crime novel.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contained 6 novels from the 1930's and 1940's. My favorites were The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing and I Married A Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich. Two of the novels were films I had seen years ago - The Postman Always Rings Twice and They Shoot Horses Don't They. Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham was also very good. You can't go wrong with any book published by the Library of America.

[Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Them politicians are thieves just like us,” T-Dub said. “Only they got more sense and use their damned tongues instead of a gun.”

6 noir stories from the 40's and 50's. The first, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is a classic, and one that I had already read.
The second, Horace McCoy’s "They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?" is a really good read, and one that I had always thought was a western, due to the title. I love the way the story is written between the words of a judge who is sentencing the main character to death! Totally original! And I didn't know much of anything about dance marathons, so I learned a lot too! Super creepy last sentence.
“Thieves LikeUs” follows three fellas that’ve escaped from prison and start robbing banks. It was a very slow read for me.
“The Big Clock” was a ‘big’ thumbs down.
“Nightmare Alley” is a story about a carnival sideshow. I really liked Molly’s backstory!
“I Married A Dead Man” was another thumbs down.

So, overall, an uneven collection of stories. It almost goes from best to worst, with the decline beginning in the middle of the third story. I'd really only recommend reading the first two.


and remember, “…if at first you don’t suck seed, keep on sucking ‘till you do suck seed.” :-)

[Todd Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great mix of classic early noir novels. Of the 6 included, I Married a Dead Man was probably my favorite, along with The Postman Always Rings Twice and Nightmare Alley. They each bring their own style to the reader, and some overall better than others. If you're looking for some classic early 20th century noir you certainly can't go wrong with this Library of America dish of nostalgic crime drama!!

[Bookworm McClain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great collection of novels. Each offered a style that was unique to itself, while also contributing to a cohesive theme that must have dominated literature in the 30's and 40's. The collection is full of anti-heroes that go to extraordinary means to escape poverty and the trap of the daily grind. Each fails, ultimately creating a self-imposed prison that proves worse than their original plight. Reading these novels is the most fun I've had exploring fatalism.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice little collection, very enjoyable. Six mystery novellas from another time, some you have likely heard of before (The Postman Always Rings Twice, They Shoot Horses Don't They?), others by authors not so familiar, but all good, and some good psychology. I especially liked the convolutions of Nightmare Alley. Highly recommended.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sampling of noir novels, of varying interest to me personally but of overall high quality. I skipped 'Nightmare Alley' having just recently seen the current film; my favorites were The Big Clock (which started out dull but became enthralling) and the emotive I Married A Dead Man. Other readers will have different favorites, and overall, worth checking out.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 short stories. 6+ film adaptations.

What a great set of thrillers! My top two from this collection are “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” But all six stories are amazing!

[Jeremy Lasky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve rated the individual novels separately. Library Of America editions are a pleasure to read. I love the feel of the books and how densely packed each volume is.