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Cassidy's Girl
They say that a man needs a woman to go to hell with. Cassidy had two. One was Mildred, the wife who kept him chained with ties of fear and jealousy and paralyzing sexual need. The other was Doris, a frail angel with a 100-proof halo and a bottle instead of a harp. With those two, Cassidy found that the ride to hell could be twice as fast.
Cassidy's Girl has all the traits that made its author a virtuoso of the hard-boiled: a fiercely compelling plot; characters who self-destruct in spectacularly unpredictable ways; and an insider's knowledge of all the routes to the bottom.
Cassidy's Girl has all the traits that made its author a virtuoso of the hard-boiled: a fiercely compelling plot; characters who self-destruct in spectacularly unpredictable ways; and an insider's knowledge of all the routes to the bottom.
173 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
42 people are currently reading
367 people want to read
About the author
David Goodis
97 books322 followersBorn and bred in Philadelphia, David Goodis was an American noir fiction writer. He grew up in a liberal, Jewish household in which his early literary ambitions were encouraged. After a short and inconclusive spell at Indiana University, he returned to Philadelphia to take a degree in journalism, graduating in 1937.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
May 30, 2019
Cassidy's Girl was first published in 1951, and was written by David Goodis, a prolific author of pulp paperback originals. Goodis is perhaps best known for his novel, Dark Passage, which was later turned into a film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Near the end of his life (Goodis died when he was only forty-nine), he would insist that the concept for the television series, "The Fugitive," had been stolen from Dark Passage.
Goodis specialized in writing about characters that were down on their luck and had basically been kicked to the curb by polite, mainstream society, and Cassidy's Girl is filled with such people. At the center of the novel is Cassidy, who was once a respected, high-flying airline captain, living the good life. But then a passenger plane he was piloting crashed on takeoff and a number of people were killed.
Although Cassidy was not at fault, he was blamed for the crash. As a consequence, he lost his job and his life began the downward spiral that ultimately finds him working as a bus driver in Philadelphia. He lives in a rundown apartment on the waterfront in the seediest part of town with his wife, Mildred. Theirs is a very rough, dysfunctional relationship with lots of drunken physical abuse on both sides. Their fights most often end in bouts of very rough, wild sex to which both Cassidy and Mildred seem addicted, but no wonder, given that "Mildred was a wild animal, a living chunk of dynamite that exploded periodically and caused Cassidy to explode, and these rooms were more of a battleground than a home."
Cassidy and Mildred have a small circle of friends, all of whom are serious alcoholics. These people spend virtually all of their waking hours at a dive bar called Lundy's where they drink themselves into oblivion, and as the book opens the reader can only wonder where Goodis is going to take these characters.
Not very far, it turns out, which is really too bad. I loved the first half of this book, which I thought had a great set up for the kind of really dark, nasty, sexy plot that leads people to read pulp novels in the first place. But sadly, there's no payoff of any consequence. These characters drink and smoke and fight and have sex and then drink some more. Cassidy will become disenchanted with Mildred and infatuated with another woman. Bad luck will continue to be his constant companion, and his life will continue to disintegrate even further. Meanwhile, the other minor characters around him will continue to drink themselves blind and offer very bad advice.
This really isn't a crime novel, since no crime of any consequence actually occurs. Rather it turns out to be something of a sociological study of a group of people that you'd never want to hang out with. The plot, such as it is, becomes increasingly unbelievable as the book progresses, until it reaches a climax which will simply leave a lot of readers shaking their heads in frustration.
I think there was a lot of unrealized potential in this story and, as I said, there were parts of it that I really enjoyed. But in the end, the book failed to live up to the promise of the opening pages and by the time it was over, I'm sorry to say that I no longer wanted to spend any additional time with either Cassidy or his girl.
Goodis specialized in writing about characters that were down on their luck and had basically been kicked to the curb by polite, mainstream society, and Cassidy's Girl is filled with such people. At the center of the novel is Cassidy, who was once a respected, high-flying airline captain, living the good life. But then a passenger plane he was piloting crashed on takeoff and a number of people were killed.
Although Cassidy was not at fault, he was blamed for the crash. As a consequence, he lost his job and his life began the downward spiral that ultimately finds him working as a bus driver in Philadelphia. He lives in a rundown apartment on the waterfront in the seediest part of town with his wife, Mildred. Theirs is a very rough, dysfunctional relationship with lots of drunken physical abuse on both sides. Their fights most often end in bouts of very rough, wild sex to which both Cassidy and Mildred seem addicted, but no wonder, given that "Mildred was a wild animal, a living chunk of dynamite that exploded periodically and caused Cassidy to explode, and these rooms were more of a battleground than a home."
Cassidy and Mildred have a small circle of friends, all of whom are serious alcoholics. These people spend virtually all of their waking hours at a dive bar called Lundy's where they drink themselves into oblivion, and as the book opens the reader can only wonder where Goodis is going to take these characters.
Not very far, it turns out, which is really too bad. I loved the first half of this book, which I thought had a great set up for the kind of really dark, nasty, sexy plot that leads people to read pulp novels in the first place. But sadly, there's no payoff of any consequence. These characters drink and smoke and fight and have sex and then drink some more. Cassidy will become disenchanted with Mildred and infatuated with another woman. Bad luck will continue to be his constant companion, and his life will continue to disintegrate even further. Meanwhile, the other minor characters around him will continue to drink themselves blind and offer very bad advice.
This really isn't a crime novel, since no crime of any consequence actually occurs. Rather it turns out to be something of a sociological study of a group of people that you'd never want to hang out with. The plot, such as it is, becomes increasingly unbelievable as the book progresses, until it reaches a climax which will simply leave a lot of readers shaking their heads in frustration.
I think there was a lot of unrealized potential in this story and, as I said, there were parts of it that I really enjoyed. But in the end, the book failed to live up to the promise of the opening pages and by the time it was over, I'm sorry to say that I no longer wanted to spend any additional time with either Cassidy or his girl.
October 15, 2024
David Goodis was the poet of the sad bleak downtrodden streets of Philadelphia. His characters all seem trapped in the same few rundown blocks of that city and his 1951 work, “Cassidy’s Girl” is no exception. Rather popular in its day, it’s the story of a man swirling around the bottom of a whirlpool of bad luck and despair. Unlike most of these stories, Goodis doesn’t start his lead character at the top of the heap. He’s already fallen into the gutter and is about a few centimeters from being washed away.
But Cassidy remembers what it was like to be at the top. He was an airline pilot, entrusted with the safety of numerous people, going around in expensive suits, highly respected. Until one day with a stroke of bad luck, it all disappears in an instant. There’s a horrible crash. The plane doesn’t land on the Hudson. Some seventy or so perish and few survive. The Review Board assigns the blame to Cassidy as do the newspapers coast to coast. He is hounded out of every job and restaurant across the country.
Now he’s got a seat at a bar where every drunk knows his name, Mildred, his voluptuous wife, who engages him in a lifelong battle of booze and blood, and a job as a local bus driver for an outfit that didn’t ask too many questions. And even that might disappear if he’s not too careful.
Cassidy is a no-good bum and you question whether he’s ever seeing it straight for how it is. Somehow nothing’s ever his fault. Not the plane crash, not the drinking, not the battle royals with Mildred that’s made their apartment into a pigsty. You start to wonder if he’s living in a fantasy world in his head, particularly when he decides Mildred is out and Doris who can’t see anything but her next bottle is his new life partner.
The excitement really picks up late in the book as Cassidy’s whole world falls apart again and he finds that there’s no peace anywhere and the fickle finger of fate is going to get you no matter what you do. He can’t escape fate and his “girl” won’t leave him in peace.
But Cassidy remembers what it was like to be at the top. He was an airline pilot, entrusted with the safety of numerous people, going around in expensive suits, highly respected. Until one day with a stroke of bad luck, it all disappears in an instant. There’s a horrible crash. The plane doesn’t land on the Hudson. Some seventy or so perish and few survive. The Review Board assigns the blame to Cassidy as do the newspapers coast to coast. He is hounded out of every job and restaurant across the country.
Now he’s got a seat at a bar where every drunk knows his name, Mildred, his voluptuous wife, who engages him in a lifelong battle of booze and blood, and a job as a local bus driver for an outfit that didn’t ask too many questions. And even that might disappear if he’s not too careful.
Cassidy is a no-good bum and you question whether he’s ever seeing it straight for how it is. Somehow nothing’s ever his fault. Not the plane crash, not the drinking, not the battle royals with Mildred that’s made their apartment into a pigsty. You start to wonder if he’s living in a fantasy world in his head, particularly when he decides Mildred is out and Doris who can’t see anything but her next bottle is his new life partner.
The excitement really picks up late in the book as Cassidy’s whole world falls apart again and he finds that there’s no peace anywhere and the fickle finger of fate is going to get you no matter what you do. He can’t escape fate and his “girl” won’t leave him in peace.
December 6, 2024
Philadelphia Tenderloin
David Goodis' novel, "Cassidy's Girl" offers a portrayal of lost people in forgotten streets of Philadelphia in the years following WW II. The characters in the story are tormented and fallen. They struggle with alcohol and with their own demons. Goodis portrays them with rawness yet with sympathy. The book is as much about atmosphere as about character. The story is set in the bars, tenements, narrow streets of the old Delaware River harbor and waterfront. I am familiar with parts of the Philadelphia that Goodis describes from the time I lived in the city years ago. But many of the places and scenes described in the book had already been lost.
The primary character of the book Jim Cassidy, 36, drives a bus between Philadelphia and Easton for a cut-rate company with headquarters on Arch Street. Here is how Goodis introduces Cassidy and the theme of the book at the outset of the novel.
"The bus made a turn of Market Street, went up through the slashing rain to Arch, went into the depot. Cassidy climbed out, opened the door, stood there to help them down from the bus. He had the habit of studying their faces as they emerged, wondering what their thoughts were, and what their lives were made of. The old women and the girls, the frowning stout men with loose flesh hanging from their jaws, and the young men who gazed dully ahead as though seeing nothing. Cassidy looked at their faces and had an idea he could see the root of their trouble. It was the fact that they were ordinary people and they didn't know what real trouble was. He could tell them. He could damn well tell them."
Cassidy spends his evening fighting with his voluptuous but shrewish wife Mildred and drinking at a cheap establishment called Lundy's Place. Earlier in his life, Cassidy had flown planes in WW II and then commercially. When he was blamed falsely for a plane accident, Cassidy's life deteriorated. He squandered his money and ultimately found himself in the Philadelphia tenderloin. When he secures the job as a bus driver, Cassidy gains a small sense of purpose and control that he does not feel otherwise.
After a particularly harsh fight with Mildred, Cassidy learns that she is interested in another patron of Lundy's Place, Haney Kendick. In his turn, Cassidy becomes involved with a young woman, Doris, 27, who is slender and withdrawn and an incurable alcoholic. As the story develops, Goodis explores which of these women, Mildred or Doris, constitutes "Cassidy's Girl".
The book includes many scenes of violence, heavy drinking, sex, and tragedy. It is also highly introspective as each of the down and out characters has his or her own story. Cassidy is forced to flee when he is accused of causing an accident in driving the bus eerily similar to the accident years earlier with the plane. For all the rage and hopelessness of the characters and the setting, the book comes to a resolution that is slightly less hopeless than is the case in some of Goodis' later novels.
Beginning in 1951, Goodis (1917 -- 1967) published a number of paperback noir novels most of which are set in his native Philadelphia. The novels offer a noir portrayal of the city and of the loneliness of urban life. "Cassidy's Girl" sold over a million copies when it was published in 1951 but was soon forgotten. With the Library of America's recent publications of "Down There" in its anthology "Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s" followed by its publication of a volume of five Goodis novels, "David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s", Goodis' dark world has achieved a place in American literature. Readers who come to Goodis through the Library of America volumes will enjoy exploring his other novels, including "Cassidy's Girl".
Robin Friedman
David Goodis' novel, "Cassidy's Girl" offers a portrayal of lost people in forgotten streets of Philadelphia in the years following WW II. The characters in the story are tormented and fallen. They struggle with alcohol and with their own demons. Goodis portrays them with rawness yet with sympathy. The book is as much about atmosphere as about character. The story is set in the bars, tenements, narrow streets of the old Delaware River harbor and waterfront. I am familiar with parts of the Philadelphia that Goodis describes from the time I lived in the city years ago. But many of the places and scenes described in the book had already been lost.
The primary character of the book Jim Cassidy, 36, drives a bus between Philadelphia and Easton for a cut-rate company with headquarters on Arch Street. Here is how Goodis introduces Cassidy and the theme of the book at the outset of the novel.
"The bus made a turn of Market Street, went up through the slashing rain to Arch, went into the depot. Cassidy climbed out, opened the door, stood there to help them down from the bus. He had the habit of studying their faces as they emerged, wondering what their thoughts were, and what their lives were made of. The old women and the girls, the frowning stout men with loose flesh hanging from their jaws, and the young men who gazed dully ahead as though seeing nothing. Cassidy looked at their faces and had an idea he could see the root of their trouble. It was the fact that they were ordinary people and they didn't know what real trouble was. He could tell them. He could damn well tell them."
Cassidy spends his evening fighting with his voluptuous but shrewish wife Mildred and drinking at a cheap establishment called Lundy's Place. Earlier in his life, Cassidy had flown planes in WW II and then commercially. When he was blamed falsely for a plane accident, Cassidy's life deteriorated. He squandered his money and ultimately found himself in the Philadelphia tenderloin. When he secures the job as a bus driver, Cassidy gains a small sense of purpose and control that he does not feel otherwise.
After a particularly harsh fight with Mildred, Cassidy learns that she is interested in another patron of Lundy's Place, Haney Kendick. In his turn, Cassidy becomes involved with a young woman, Doris, 27, who is slender and withdrawn and an incurable alcoholic. As the story develops, Goodis explores which of these women, Mildred or Doris, constitutes "Cassidy's Girl".
The book includes many scenes of violence, heavy drinking, sex, and tragedy. It is also highly introspective as each of the down and out characters has his or her own story. Cassidy is forced to flee when he is accused of causing an accident in driving the bus eerily similar to the accident years earlier with the plane. For all the rage and hopelessness of the characters and the setting, the book comes to a resolution that is slightly less hopeless than is the case in some of Goodis' later novels.
Beginning in 1951, Goodis (1917 -- 1967) published a number of paperback noir novels most of which are set in his native Philadelphia. The novels offer a noir portrayal of the city and of the loneliness of urban life. "Cassidy's Girl" sold over a million copies when it was published in 1951 but was soon forgotten. With the Library of America's recent publications of "Down There" in its anthology "Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s" followed by its publication of a volume of five Goodis novels, "David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s", Goodis' dark world has achieved a place in American literature. Readers who come to Goodis through the Library of America volumes will enjoy exploring his other novels, including "Cassidy's Girl".
Robin Friedman
January 20, 2024
3.5 bleak, yet steamy stars. The protagonist of this noir, but hardly crime, story is a poor schlimazel with the worst damn luck. He's also just about the most stubborn SOB in the world, unwilling to accept help or advice from anyone, especially his inept yet well meaning friends. The story swings between the lows of him drowning himself in alcohol and self-pity and the highs of his naive delusions of pulling himself out of the slums and escaping his woes. Foremost among his troubles is his tumultuous trainwreck of a marriage to a wild, vicious vixen, where they seemingly get off on tormenting each other and only get along in the sack.
It's a painful, tragic tale of improbable bad luck and self-destruction, with brief flashes of hope that are quickly dashed by a cruel, unforgiving fate. Yet there's something hopeful perhaps in the end, let's call it a coming to terms with reality. There are flashes of deeply poignant brilliance in Goodis' writing, but it also suffers from stilted dialogue and an excess of inner dialogue that I found awkward at times.
It's a painful, tragic tale of improbable bad luck and self-destruction, with brief flashes of hope that are quickly dashed by a cruel, unforgiving fate. Yet there's something hopeful perhaps in the end, let's call it a coming to terms with reality. There are flashes of deeply poignant brilliance in Goodis' writing, but it also suffers from stilted dialogue and an excess of inner dialogue that I found awkward at times.
September 21, 2024
Goodis' Cassidy's girl tells a bleak tale (no surprise there), with lots of losers possessing few redeeming qualities. Our lead, one Cassidy, used to be an airline pilot after the war, but after a crash he was blamed for (though not his fault), he found his way to Philly, a bottle leading him along. Just about everyone in the tale drinks like fish! Anyway, Cassidy found a lady named Mildred at the local watering hole; big and busty, but mean.
The story starts with Cassidy coming home from his job; he managed to get one driving buses. The flat, wrecked and spotted with blood, sets his hair up, and then he finds Mildred getting ready for a night on the town. After a nasty fight/sex (a pattern!), Mildred tells him it is over. They have been married for over a year, but not very happily, given Mildred's proclivity to booze and violence.
The local watering hole, some dive by the docks, contains most of the rest of the characters, where whiskey is sold by the bottle and a back room for boozing after hours. The day Mildred walks out, Cassidy goes to the bar and meets Doris, another alkie, and falls for her. He (and she!) knows she's a drunk, but he wants to redeem her. Even though Mildred walked out, hearing about Doris gets her dander up something awful and things start to get very ugly quickly...
So, who is Cassidy's girl? Doris is the new gal, but Mildred the main antagonist in the story. I know Goodis had some issues with women, and perhaps his feelings infused the women here. Big, mean Mildred versus thin, tiny Doris. While Cassidy's girl presents a hard look at the down and outs in Philly, most of them are at the bottom due to choice or just plain bad luck; with Cassidy, it seems to be a bit of both. Good pulp for sure, but do not expect this to change your life. 3 mean stars!
The story starts with Cassidy coming home from his job; he managed to get one driving buses. The flat, wrecked and spotted with blood, sets his hair up, and then he finds Mildred getting ready for a night on the town. After a nasty fight/sex (a pattern!), Mildred tells him it is over. They have been married for over a year, but not very happily, given Mildred's proclivity to booze and violence.
The local watering hole, some dive by the docks, contains most of the rest of the characters, where whiskey is sold by the bottle and a back room for boozing after hours. The day Mildred walks out, Cassidy goes to the bar and meets Doris, another alkie, and falls for her. He (and she!) knows she's a drunk, but he wants to redeem her. Even though Mildred walked out, hearing about Doris gets her dander up something awful and things start to get very ugly quickly...
So, who is Cassidy's girl? Doris is the new gal, but Mildred the main antagonist in the story. I know Goodis had some issues with women, and perhaps his feelings infused the women here. Big, mean Mildred versus thin, tiny Doris. While Cassidy's girl presents a hard look at the down and outs in Philly, most of them are at the bottom due to choice or just plain bad luck; with Cassidy, it seems to be a bit of both. Good pulp for sure, but do not expect this to change your life. 3 mean stars!
October 10, 2022
Jim Cassidy is a former pilot, who after an accident, tumbles down the social scale to become a bus driver in a life full of drink, sex, and bloody violence.
This races along, packing into 150 pages what current writers would probably stretch to 400. There isn’t an ounce of spare flesh.
Chapter 3 is action packed. Soon after a cat fight, we get:-
Kenrick pulled the weight of his paunch up into his chest and moved towards Cassidy and swung with all his strength.
Cassidy wasn’t fast enough. It was a roundhouse right hand and it caught him full on the jaw. He went flying back and collided with a table and was bent back over it as Kenrick came at him again. Kenrick grabbed his legs and heaved him across the top of the table, then circled the table to kick him in the ribs and aim another kick. Cassidy rolled away, leaped up and tried to defend himself and couldn’t do it. Kenrick smashed his mouth with a straight left, then blasted another left to the nose, and a right to the head. And Cassidy went down again.
And what the fighting is all over in Chapter 13:-
He saw Mildred standing there in the center of the room: She wore shoes and stockings and a bright purple girdle. Her hands were cupped against the swirl of her hips. Her breasts were high up and all the way out and the nipples seemed to be precisely aimed.
Mildred said, “Come here.”
He tried to drag his eyes away from her. He couldn’t do it.
But the story is not without tenderness, usually as Jim reflects over his life and situations in moments of clarity and realisation. And the other woman in his life, Doris.
Yes, you can detect at times the great speed with which this novel was probably written, but it only reflects the rollercoaster of action and emotions on display. It’s a fast-paced novel that’s in your face, guts, and everywhere else. BOOOMPH!!!
It’s an enjoyable read by one of the big names of the hard-boiled genre.
This races along, packing into 150 pages what current writers would probably stretch to 400. There isn’t an ounce of spare flesh.
Chapter 3 is action packed. Soon after a cat fight, we get:-
Kenrick pulled the weight of his paunch up into his chest and moved towards Cassidy and swung with all his strength.
Cassidy wasn’t fast enough. It was a roundhouse right hand and it caught him full on the jaw. He went flying back and collided with a table and was bent back over it as Kenrick came at him again. Kenrick grabbed his legs and heaved him across the top of the table, then circled the table to kick him in the ribs and aim another kick. Cassidy rolled away, leaped up and tried to defend himself and couldn’t do it. Kenrick smashed his mouth with a straight left, then blasted another left to the nose, and a right to the head. And Cassidy went down again.
And what the fighting is all over in Chapter 13:-
He saw Mildred standing there in the center of the room: She wore shoes and stockings and a bright purple girdle. Her hands were cupped against the swirl of her hips. Her breasts were high up and all the way out and the nipples seemed to be precisely aimed.
Mildred said, “Come here.”
He tried to drag his eyes away from her. He couldn’t do it.
But the story is not without tenderness, usually as Jim reflects over his life and situations in moments of clarity and realisation. And the other woman in his life, Doris.
Yes, you can detect at times the great speed with which this novel was probably written, but it only reflects the rollercoaster of action and emotions on display. It’s a fast-paced novel that’s in your face, guts, and everywhere else. BOOOMPH!!!
It’s an enjoyable read by one of the big names of the hard-boiled genre.
October 26, 2012
This noir title is another winner from David Goodis, its plotting faults notwithstanding. The main character, Jim Cassidy, suffers one setback and indignity after another. He's lost his job as an airliner pilot and finally lands a lesser job as a bus driver and seems on his way to staging a comeback. The rub is his shrewish wife Mildred has taken up with the a slick salesman named Haney. Of course, he makes trouble for Cassidy who then pins his solace and hopes on a young alcoholic pixie named Doris. Mildred plays a lush, destructive femme fatale to the hilt. The circle of drunks and losers at the local drinking hole called Lundy's Place win your sympathy because they're loyal in trying to prop up Cassidy's sagging fortunes. I mentioned the plotting problems, such as the ending, but I won't discuss them here for the sake of making spoilers. I like Goodis' prose, setting, scenes, and characters. So, I'll read deeper in the Goodis canon over time.
October 23, 2020
Although the character types and the setting are completely different, the knock-down drag-out verbal (and physical) battles between the men and women characters in this David Goodis novel had me continuously visualizing Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton from that great movie based on the Edward Albee play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. So that is a big part of this novel: the characters guzzle booze and fight. The other part of the novel is Cassidy's arc. He's a disgraced airline pilot who crashed a plane and is now driving a bus for a "living." After a boozy brawl with his buxom wife he dumps her for an alcoholic waif. Cassidy should be watching out for the woman scorned, but isn't. Fights with her lover instead and then foolishly lets the guy on his bus, in the seat behind his driver's seat, with a flask of booze. Can you see what is coming? On the run, helped by friends doing more harm than good, Cassidy can't stop thinking about saving the alcoholic waif and his wrong decisions keep stacking up. Enter stage left, his scorned and vengeful wife. And so it goes. The dialogue gets a bit repetitive at times but Goodis also portrays these self destructive lives with some beautiful prose.
October 29, 2008
I regret having to report that David Goodis continues to disappoint me. Cassidy's Girl is the best of the three Goodis novels I have read this year. Indeed, it could have been the noir masterpiece that it strives to be (as could have The Moon in the Gutter), but in my reading Goodis simply does not have the writerly chops to pull it off.
Of course, one should not expect polished prose from any writer of paperback originals--writers like Goodis cranked out novels and stories as fast as they could roll blank sheets into their typewriters, and readers should expect and accept that their writing will not always be deathless. But Goodis is less deathless than most, and the problems with his sometimes fumbling prose are brought into sharp relief by the modesty of his plots. To his credit, Goodis strives to build his books around nuanced characters, but to do this successfully requires a precision that he cannot muster. In Cassidy's Girl, he is more or less in control of his material until the final chapter, and then the wheels fall off. His halting attempts to describe moments of epiphanic discovery result in such nightmarish sentences as this: "The next thing in his mind was the start of another discovery, but before he could concentrate on it, his attention was drawn to Haney Kenrick." Egad. And I would argue that the novel's plotting collapses in its final chapter as well, but in the interest of avoiding spoilers, I will keep that rant to myself.
In the end, Goodis' failures might be seen as the result of unusually high ambition in an author of noir PBOs. Few authors of paperback originals attempted to portray their characters with the same emotional depth. By comparison, Jim Thompson is also not much of a prose stylist, but the wild depravity of his plots hardly gives readers a chance to notice. Goodis, however, in attempting more subtle effects, leaves his writing too naked for observation.
Of course, one should not expect polished prose from any writer of paperback originals--writers like Goodis cranked out novels and stories as fast as they could roll blank sheets into their typewriters, and readers should expect and accept that their writing will not always be deathless. But Goodis is less deathless than most, and the problems with his sometimes fumbling prose are brought into sharp relief by the modesty of his plots. To his credit, Goodis strives to build his books around nuanced characters, but to do this successfully requires a precision that he cannot muster. In Cassidy's Girl, he is more or less in control of his material until the final chapter, and then the wheels fall off. His halting attempts to describe moments of epiphanic discovery result in such nightmarish sentences as this: "The next thing in his mind was the start of another discovery, but before he could concentrate on it, his attention was drawn to Haney Kenrick." Egad. And I would argue that the novel's plotting collapses in its final chapter as well, but in the interest of avoiding spoilers, I will keep that rant to myself.
In the end, Goodis' failures might be seen as the result of unusually high ambition in an author of noir PBOs. Few authors of paperback originals attempted to portray their characters with the same emotional depth. By comparison, Jim Thompson is also not much of a prose stylist, but the wild depravity of his plots hardly gives readers a chance to notice. Goodis, however, in attempting more subtle effects, leaves his writing too naked for observation.
March 24, 2011
Goodis is, to me, all about the mood, the dread, the hopelessness, and the brutality. Readers unfamiliar with him and not knowing what to expect will quickly find problems with his plotting and dialogue (yes, some of it laughable). But Goodis was consistently himself, his books speak with an uncommon darkness. You'll finish many of his books, this included, and realize there really are no winners. The dredge of life continues, almost unwelcomely so.
After reading only a couple Goodis books I think you'll quickly appreciate the consistency and the honesty of his writing. There are very common themes in each. I approach each book already knowing Goodis well and I've reread several of his books and each time come away wishing to read it again (with a few exceptions). I consider this, Cassidy's Girl, a good introduction to the twisted, low-life world of David Goodis.
After reading only a couple Goodis books I think you'll quickly appreciate the consistency and the honesty of his writing. There are very common themes in each. I approach each book already knowing Goodis well and I've reread several of his books and each time come away wishing to read it again (with a few exceptions). I consider this, Cassidy's Girl, a good introduction to the twisted, low-life world of David Goodis.
May 12, 2011
If ‘Noir Fiction’ is defined as a sub genre of the hardboiled with an “…emphasis on sexual relationships and the use of sex to advance the plot and the self-destructive qualities of the lead characters.” Then Goodis wrote that definition in ‘Cassidy’s Girl’.
In deed, practically every character in this minor master piece is self-destructive and bent on the failure of the very idea of redemption for Jim Cassidy see the rest of the review on Crimeways, http://crimeways.wordpress.com/2011/0...
In deed, practically every character in this minor master piece is self-destructive and bent on the failure of the very idea of redemption for Jim Cassidy see the rest of the review on Crimeways, http://crimeways.wordpress.com/2011/0...
September 8, 2013
Cassidy's Girl is one of the pulp noir genre's greatest efforts. Seemlessly mixing fantasy with the hardships of life on the skids, Goodis perfectly executes this melodrama chapter and verse.
I love the dark characters and the slippery plot developments. The way Cassidy reaches his epiphany at the end, turns on a dime and delivers as few truly do.
www.cassidysgirl.net
I love the dark characters and the slippery plot developments. The way Cassidy reaches his epiphany at the end, turns on a dime and delivers as few truly do.
www.cassidysgirl.net
February 6, 2009
A washed-up bus driver settles the score for his girlfriend getting killed. Who cares? What a stupid book.
March 29, 2025
This is a fine piece of pulp fiction that soon moves into noir territory.
The original cover, that I have used for the edition I read, is a false indication of what is to follow, something like that of a Harlequin romance, though those who embark on a Goodis novel are well aware that it is highly unlikely to end happily, despite its beginning..
..Muscular bus driver, Jim Cassidy, cannot escape the draw of his full-figured wife, despite the deterioration in the relationship; they constantly argue and shout abuse at each other. Their seedy apartment, and the local saloon, Lundy’s Tavern, are the main settings; typically bleak Goodis, as indeed are almost all of the characters in the novel, lost alcoholics stumbling though quarts of whisky to make it through the morning.
More so than the plot, which does tick along, this is an examination into the lives of people like Cassidy, just about to hit the bottom, but determine he can turn his life around. But the plot is important also, especially two twists. The first goes someway to explain Cassidy’s situation, that he was involved in an horrific event that took the lives of innocent people, and reaffirms the book’s grim and depressing tone. The second is much later on, and less convincing.
This is the sort of book that epitomises Goodis’s writing of blunt noir poetry with unflinching depictions of people trapped between bottle and rock bottom.
The original cover, that I have used for the edition I read, is a false indication of what is to follow, something like that of a Harlequin romance, though those who embark on a Goodis novel are well aware that it is highly unlikely to end happily, despite its beginning..
..Muscular bus driver, Jim Cassidy, cannot escape the draw of his full-figured wife, despite the deterioration in the relationship; they constantly argue and shout abuse at each other. Their seedy apartment, and the local saloon, Lundy’s Tavern, are the main settings; typically bleak Goodis, as indeed are almost all of the characters in the novel, lost alcoholics stumbling though quarts of whisky to make it through the morning.
More so than the plot, which does tick along, this is an examination into the lives of people like Cassidy, just about to hit the bottom, but determine he can turn his life around. But the plot is important also, especially two twists. The first goes someway to explain Cassidy’s situation, that he was involved in an horrific event that took the lives of innocent people, and reaffirms the book’s grim and depressing tone. The second is much later on, and less convincing.
This is the sort of book that epitomises Goodis’s writing of blunt noir poetry with unflinching depictions of people trapped between bottle and rock bottom.
August 6, 2025
I've read about half of David Goodis's books and liked them all but I found Cassidy's Girl (1951, 165 pgs.) to be just OK. To sum it up quickly it's a story about a group of raving alcoholics in the waterfront of Philly...every character is totally juiced through out the book. There is a plot, a former pilot, who crashed his plane killing all the passengers has turned to the bottle...mean while his no-good wife has turned to the party life raising hell with their marriage. Different drunk characters float in and out of the story and there are some good action scenes but it really loses it in the final Act just barely making sense. I got the feeling that Goodis was juiced himself while writing this one...If you like drunk books like The Great Gatsby you might like Cassidy's Girl...3.0 outta 5.0....
June 8, 2010
Jim Cassidy has been down on his luck for some time as Goodis continues his story. Cassidy is married to Mildred in a very stormy relationship, but decides he really wants Doris. All 3 of these characters are lost souls, but Goodis really makes you pull for Cassidy's character even as he spins even more out of control. This book is about Cassidy's continuing story.
David Goodis was a noir fiction writer and screen writer. Most of his work was published between the 40's and 60's. He died in 1967 at the age of 50. He had just filed a lawsuit against the popular TV series, The Fugitive, claiming it was based on his work, Dark Passage, a serialized novel that first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. I can remember being hooked into the Fugitive, so learning about this was very interesting. I think I'm going to have to find a copy of Dark Passage now.
If you like your fiction dark, I think you will like Goodis. Evidently he was a big influence on Ken Gruen, my new favorite author. This book did make me wish I had a dog I could kick around, though. For more on Goodis, refer to thiswebsite.
David Goodis was a noir fiction writer and screen writer. Most of his work was published between the 40's and 60's. He died in 1967 at the age of 50. He had just filed a lawsuit against the popular TV series, The Fugitive, claiming it was based on his work, Dark Passage, a serialized novel that first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. I can remember being hooked into the Fugitive, so learning about this was very interesting. I think I'm going to have to find a copy of Dark Passage now.
If you like your fiction dark, I think you will like Goodis. Evidently he was a big influence on Ken Gruen, my new favorite author. This book did make me wish I had a dog I could kick around, though. For more on Goodis, refer to thiswebsite.
September 29, 2025
I picked up Cassidy’s Girl after a conversation about the noir genre, intrigued by the way David Goodis was described: not a stylist in the polished sense, but a master at conjuring atmosphere—especially the feeling that disaster is always just around the corner.
That description was right on the mark. The book isn’t perfect, but it’s utterly compelling. Goodis draws you into a world of broken people and bad choices with such intensity that I inhaled it in two days. What lingers isn’t the plot so much as the suffocating mood—the sense of doom pressing in on every page.
After finishing, I found myself digging into Goodis’s own life story, which turned out to be just as fascinating and tragic as his characters. In a way, knowing his background only deepened the effect of the book.
Cassidy’s Girl may be rough around the edges, but it’s the kind of raw, atmospheric noir that leaves its mark.
That description was right on the mark. The book isn’t perfect, but it’s utterly compelling. Goodis draws you into a world of broken people and bad choices with such intensity that I inhaled it in two days. What lingers isn’t the plot so much as the suffocating mood—the sense of doom pressing in on every page.
After finishing, I found myself digging into Goodis’s own life story, which turned out to be just as fascinating and tragic as his characters. In a way, knowing his background only deepened the effect of the book.
Cassidy’s Girl may be rough around the edges, but it’s the kind of raw, atmospheric noir that leaves its mark.
October 8, 2022
"Avanzó hacia Lundys con la mente obnubilada, reblandecida; los vapores del whisky le daban vueltas en la cabeza nublándole la vista. No pensaba en otra cosa que ir a Lundys a beber. A tomarse varias copas. Cuantas copas le apetecieran. Nada le impediría llegar adonde se dirigía. Iba a tomarse unos whiskies y era mejor que nadie se interpusiera en su camino. No tenía ni idea de quién era ese "nadie", pero quien quiera que fuese, más le valía dejarle el camino libre... "
November 7, 2010
This was a disappointing one. It has some good moments but is marred long passages of drunken chatter and a protagonist whose actions step over the line of credibility. Look for Goodis's novel The Burglar instead.
September 23, 2018
In the Great Courses lecture series, I enjoyed a wonderful exploration of great mystery and suspense writers from Edgar Allan Poe’s THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE to the present day. The course not only rounded up “the usual suspects,” but also writers who (though popular in their time) were new to me. One of the latter was the writer of this book, David Goodis.
CASSIDY’S GIRL is a hard-boiled “noir” novel with some criminal occurrences, but with no special emphasis on the solution of a mystery. Instead, it builds suspense in the story of Cassidy, a bus driver working out of Philadelphia. He had a very promising and high-paying career as an airline pilot until the suspicious circumstances involving the crash of his plane makes him unemployable.
Cassidy is married to Mildred, a voluptuous image of a low-rent sex goddess who hates her living arrangement with Cassidy and seeks livelier entertainment wherever she can find it. This is naturally a formula for trouble that will eventually turn into a “wrongly accused suspect” and “revenge story” combination.
CASSIDY’S GIRL is filled with characters who would probably feel right at home in a Mike Hammer novel, although this story is a bit less violent. It also doesn’t jump to “the hero will win” scenarios of many hard-boiled detective novels of the period. Sometimes, bad things happen and then keep happening. The realism of lives existing between swigs from a bottle isn’t pleasant.
There are also some twists that didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Yes, they COULD happen, yet they didn’t seem likely to me. Consequently, although the action kept things moving, I wasn’t always completely involved.
CASSIDY’S GIRL is an acceptable substitute when you aren’t quite in the mood to read Mickey Spillane, but you want something stronger than Ross Macdonald.
CASSIDY’S GIRL is a hard-boiled “noir” novel with some criminal occurrences, but with no special emphasis on the solution of a mystery. Instead, it builds suspense in the story of Cassidy, a bus driver working out of Philadelphia. He had a very promising and high-paying career as an airline pilot until the suspicious circumstances involving the crash of his plane makes him unemployable.
Cassidy is married to Mildred, a voluptuous image of a low-rent sex goddess who hates her living arrangement with Cassidy and seeks livelier entertainment wherever she can find it. This is naturally a formula for trouble that will eventually turn into a “wrongly accused suspect” and “revenge story” combination.
CASSIDY’S GIRL is filled with characters who would probably feel right at home in a Mike Hammer novel, although this story is a bit less violent. It also doesn’t jump to “the hero will win” scenarios of many hard-boiled detective novels of the period. Sometimes, bad things happen and then keep happening. The realism of lives existing between swigs from a bottle isn’t pleasant.
There are also some twists that didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Yes, they COULD happen, yet they didn’t seem likely to me. Consequently, although the action kept things moving, I wasn’t always completely involved.
CASSIDY’S GIRL is an acceptable substitute when you aren’t quite in the mood to read Mickey Spillane, but you want something stronger than Ross Macdonald.
September 30, 2021
This is by no stretch of the imagination a feel-good book. Not only is it noir, it is as noir as a book can get. Imagine to yourself an airline pilot who crashes a passenger plane and is the only survivor, then imagine the same man driving a bus and getting into a fatal accident that kills 26 passengers. No, David Goodis's Cassidy's Girl
Take, for instance, this brief clip of dialog:
The book has probably the most despicable femme fatale in all of fiction, Cassidy's wife Mildred, a fat alcoholic letch who is 100% mean and vindictive.
If you like to wallow in the mud with Cassidy, this is the book for you!
Take, for instance, this brief clip of dialog:
"You're a sad case."
"Good. I like it when I'm down and out. I get a kick out of it."
"We all do," Sheahy said. "All the bums, all the wrecks. We get to the point where we like that ride downgrade. To the bottom, where it's soft, where the mud is."
The book has probably the most despicable femme fatale in all of fiction, Cassidy's wife Mildred, a fat alcoholic letch who is 100% mean and vindictive.
If you like to wallow in the mud with Cassidy, this is the book for you!
July 7, 2024
Originally published in 1951, this story perfectly depicts the hard and gritty existence for the denizens of the decaying waterfront towns in post-war era America. The characters are all caught in a downward spiral of hopelessness and despair, hastened by their daily alcohol infused revelries ending in violent brawls. This bygone era has disappeared as economic, cultural and social shifts have revitalized waterfront cities and town into tourist attractions with many remnants being repurposed as museums, walkways, and parks.
January 17, 2025
Some really nice noir passages, though the plot often strains credulity
July 7, 2024
A very noirish love story.
January 5, 2016
Jim Cassidy is a loser.
His friends, who he doesn't hate, are losers.
His wife, Mildred, who he hates (the feeling is most-assuredly mutual), is too a loser. It would be a shame for Cassidy if she was his girl.
Cassidy spends his nights surrounded by losers at the local loser bar after his dead-end loser job as a bus driver. It hadn't always been this way for Cassidy. It wasn't always a one-way ticket to nowhere alongside the local drunks at the watering hole hovering above the Philadelphia docks.
It wasn't too long ago when Cassidy had it all. A former football hero turned World War II ace fighter pilot who settled into a great post war career as a commercial airline pilot. But then, as it goes in these tales (and pick you pun wherever you'd like coming up), Cassidy's world came down in a heap of flames, taking the rap for a plane crash that left a lot of people dead. The co-pilot suggested that Cassidy was flying drunk. Cassidy claimed otherwise. But hey, the damage was done and Cassidy's life was ruined and shortly thereafter Cassidy became a card-carrying lowlife.
The plot kicks off after another day on the job when all Cassidy wants when he comes home is a doting wife who has a meal ready to go for him. As far as Cassidy is concerned, it's the least she could do for him. Unfortunately, he married Mildred, who instead has left their place in shambles after an all day booze fest where they couldn't even have the damn decency to clean up the spilled booze and blood.
Cassidy decides he's had enough and that he's leaving Mildred and this life behind him. He puts all his hopes and dreams on a new face at the local bar, a plain, fading thin, world-class alcoholic named Doris. Perhaps Doris is Cassidy's Girl after all? Wouldn't that be nice? The two of them could start a new life together without Mildred and without the drink or Cassidy would be damned.
And as we know after reading enough noir, the poor bastard Cassidy is indeed damned. You punch the wrong fella in the bar... even if he is some fat slob who pines after Mildred (she's still his wife, even if she's a hated one) and everything goes downhill from there.
For awhile, the plot runs at a compelling breakneck pace as the proverbial noose tightens around Cassidy's neck. Sometimes the writing is too fast as feels more like a plot summary, but there are moments when Goodis slows down and really takes his time. One sequence in particular is a great example in which Cassidy, seeming on the verge of a clean getaway, imagines what his new life will be like. It's ultimately heart-breaking because you know it's never going to pan out that way for him. And I think Cassidy knows this too. Perhaps that's why he allows himself so much time to indulge in his fantasy life.
Unfortunately, a lot of the steam is let out as the final chapters unfold into an almost surreal, hyper-sexual, deus ex machina ending. It feels forced and rushed. but that's the case with a lot of the old pulp authors who cranked out work a rapid pace.
The dialogue is fun, but strays into the hokey more often than it should.
Flaws aside, Cassidy's Girl is a fun read from an author who doesn't always make the casual reader's list of must-read noir or pulp writers, but Goodis' work is worth the time, especially for fans of the genre.
Cassidy's Girl by David Goodis - 3 out of 5 Late Nights in the Secret Room at Bar for the Regulars Only
His friends, who he doesn't hate, are losers.
His wife, Mildred, who he hates (the feeling is most-assuredly mutual), is too a loser. It would be a shame for Cassidy if she was his girl.
Cassidy spends his nights surrounded by losers at the local loser bar after his dead-end loser job as a bus driver. It hadn't always been this way for Cassidy. It wasn't always a one-way ticket to nowhere alongside the local drunks at the watering hole hovering above the Philadelphia docks.
It wasn't too long ago when Cassidy had it all. A former football hero turned World War II ace fighter pilot who settled into a great post war career as a commercial airline pilot. But then, as it goes in these tales (and pick you pun wherever you'd like coming up), Cassidy's world came down in a heap of flames, taking the rap for a plane crash that left a lot of people dead. The co-pilot suggested that Cassidy was flying drunk. Cassidy claimed otherwise. But hey, the damage was done and Cassidy's life was ruined and shortly thereafter Cassidy became a card-carrying lowlife.
The plot kicks off after another day on the job when all Cassidy wants when he comes home is a doting wife who has a meal ready to go for him. As far as Cassidy is concerned, it's the least she could do for him. Unfortunately, he married Mildred, who instead has left their place in shambles after an all day booze fest where they couldn't even have the damn decency to clean up the spilled booze and blood.
Cassidy decides he's had enough and that he's leaving Mildred and this life behind him. He puts all his hopes and dreams on a new face at the local bar, a plain, fading thin, world-class alcoholic named Doris. Perhaps Doris is Cassidy's Girl after all? Wouldn't that be nice? The two of them could start a new life together without Mildred and without the drink or Cassidy would be damned.
And as we know after reading enough noir, the poor bastard Cassidy is indeed damned. You punch the wrong fella in the bar... even if he is some fat slob who pines after Mildred (she's still his wife, even if she's a hated one) and everything goes downhill from there.
For awhile, the plot runs at a compelling breakneck pace as the proverbial noose tightens around Cassidy's neck. Sometimes the writing is too fast as feels more like a plot summary, but there are moments when Goodis slows down and really takes his time. One sequence in particular is a great example in which Cassidy, seeming on the verge of a clean getaway, imagines what his new life will be like. It's ultimately heart-breaking because you know it's never going to pan out that way for him. And I think Cassidy knows this too. Perhaps that's why he allows himself so much time to indulge in his fantasy life.
Unfortunately, a lot of the steam is let out as the final chapters unfold into an almost surreal, hyper-sexual, deus ex machina ending. It feels forced and rushed. but that's the case with a lot of the old pulp authors who cranked out work a rapid pace.
The dialogue is fun, but strays into the hokey more often than it should.
Flaws aside, Cassidy's Girl is a fun read from an author who doesn't always make the casual reader's list of must-read noir or pulp writers, but Goodis' work is worth the time, especially for fans of the genre.
Cassidy's Girl by David Goodis - 3 out of 5 Late Nights in the Secret Room at Bar for the Regulars Only
January 1, 2012
My first Goodis novel did not disappoint my expectations. I knew that there were be drastic differences in writing styles because of the decades when Goodis was finding success compared to the type of writing one gets by today's contemporaries. He wrote the way Hollywood movies had dialog. Short staccatos frequently repeating the same thing from one line to the next and then again in the next paragraph.
Apparently this is a typical Goodis novel and actually typical of most noir. The characters are absolutely beyond miserable. Their level of misery is barely measurable. They have shitty jobs, if any; they only ingest booze and occasional meaty stews; the women are never average - they're either scrawny and pathetic or zaftig and brutish.
I had gotten halfway through the book and still found myself questioning what it was about. When would something happen? Which woman in the book was the title character "Cassidy's Girl?" It wasn't clear until the final scene.
There's a difference between a character like Jim Cassidy versus someone like DIE HARD'S John McClean. When bad things happen to McClean, he get's lucky and things eventually have a happy ending. When bad things happen to Cassidy it only means something even worse is going to happen to him four chapters from then.
Apparently this is a typical Goodis novel and actually typical of most noir. The characters are absolutely beyond miserable. Their level of misery is barely measurable. They have shitty jobs, if any; they only ingest booze and occasional meaty stews; the women are never average - they're either scrawny and pathetic or zaftig and brutish.
I had gotten halfway through the book and still found myself questioning what it was about. When would something happen? Which woman in the book was the title character "Cassidy's Girl?" It wasn't clear until the final scene.
There's a difference between a character like Jim Cassidy versus someone like DIE HARD'S John McClean. When bad things happen to McClean, he get's lucky and things eventually have a happy ending. When bad things happen to Cassidy it only means something even worse is going to happen to him four chapters from then.
May 28, 2016
When Pilot Jim Cassidy takes the rap for an airplane crash, his fall from grace is tragic. After shuffling from one place to another he ends up near the rain soaked waterfront in Philadelphia. From here his troubles really begin when he starts to fight back against his dominating, unfaithful wife Mildred. As Cassidy and his friends drink themselves into oblivion in the flea pit bar known as Lundy’s Place he meets the fragile alcoholic Doris. So begins a bitter downward spiral of romance that consumes Cassidy. Noir author David Goodis certainly knew how to load an emotional dice with shattering consequences and in the novel Cassidy’s Girl he demonstrated what could be done when a talented author turns pulp fiction into literary magic. Despite the abrupt and somewhat frustrating ending Cassidy’s Girl is still a great place to start reading Goodis’s work. Another title from Goodis that I’d recommend to the curious is Down There (aka Shoot the Piano Player) which carries an equally powerful narrative thunderbolt.
March 19, 2010
A tough read--this is a darker noir than the other Goodis book I read, "Nightfall." The cast of characters is classic noir--a ragtag bunch of alcoholic losers who have given up on life and drifted to the lowest dregs of society. Events unfold with a horrifying, tragic inevitability--and yet the ending offers a surprising amount of hope, as the losers band together however briefly to defend the protagonist.
The most interesting part of the book was the dichotomy between the two female characters the protagonist is involved with. Mildred, his wife, is a blowsy, tawdry, sexy tramp who loves to pick fights with him. He falls in love with Doris, a sweet, frail alcoholic woman that he wants desperately to save from a sordid booze-fogged life. It's classic Madonna-whore stuff, but it turns out to be not as simple as it seems.
The most interesting part of the book was the dichotomy between the two female characters the protagonist is involved with. Mildred, his wife, is a blowsy, tawdry, sexy tramp who loves to pick fights with him. He falls in love with Doris, a sweet, frail alcoholic woman that he wants desperately to save from a sordid booze-fogged life. It's classic Madonna-whore stuff, but it turns out to be not as simple as it seems.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2011
This book delivers what I believe is the quintessential David Goodis experience. I'd only read DOWN THERE (aka Shoot the Piano Player) many years ago; CASSIDY'S GIRL is, I think, more intense, more drunken, more violent, more lyrical. Or at least it made more of an impression on me. Goodis is just straight down-and-out -- no humor, no irony really. Scenes and characters are way over-the-top (especially Cassidy's wife, Mildred), but you go along with them to indulge Goodis's seedy, seamy, dissolute, feverish noir world.
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