noir read of the month #1: Nightfall, by David Goodis

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

This thread will be for discussing Nightfall, by David Goodis.

Sawyer, you're in the driver's seat.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

I got my copy, and it's in my suitcase with me right now. Hopefully I'll actually have some time to read it!

[Feliks]

Turned into a fine b&w 1957 movie starring the wonderful scratchy-voiced tough guy, Aldo Ray. This was before he got fat.

Ray took part in an infamous Hollywood anecdote about Jack Warner. Supposedly, Ray was on the studio lot, in the admin building getting his hair cut. Warner walks by and asks him whether he's getting the cut on studio time or on his own time.

Ray quips: "Well I grew the hair on studio time, so I figure why not get it cut here, too?

Deep grimace by Jack Warner. Ray said later that this was probably why his contract was terminated not long after.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

All right, Sawyer -- I'll be ready by Friday.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

FYI - last night I sliced my thumb, didn't realize it, and appropriately, blood flowed all over this book as I read it.

[Sawyer]

What does everyone think about the scene where he calls the police department in Denver?

One of the aspects that I find interesting about vintage novels is the way that they show you how things were done in the past. I know from personal experience that old-fashioned investigative efforts really do work. However, I think in some ways good old-fashioned investigative techniques are a lost art.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

To be honest, I thought he was being kind of stupid there. He even said that he figured the call would be traced, and when they kept asking him to hold on, you'd think he would have figured it out.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Did you find any sameness between Vanning and Fraser? I mean, even though they were supposed to be in opposition (Fraser the cop, Vanning the fugitive), they had a lot in common, IMO.

[Franky]

Nancy wrote: "Did you find any sameness between Vanning and Fraser? I mean, even though they were supposed to be in opposition (Fraser the cop, Vanning the fugitive), they had a lot in common, IMO."

I think that is a vaild point. Fraser is tracking Vanning for a good deal of the book. He even tells his wife that he is troubled about Vanning and has a feeling that he isn't really a "bad guy." I think there is a connection there.

What really makes this book tick so much to me is just the level of thinking/debating/interior monologue goes on in Vanning's mind. He is forever at odds with himself, and in dilemma. I think Goodis has a great knack for creating a very cerebral character study, and Vanning is surely an indication of this.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Franky wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Did you find any sameness between Vanning and Fraser? I mean, even though they were supposed to be in opposition (Fraser the cop, Vanning the fugitive), they had a lot in common, IMO...."

I think Goodis does a great job inside his characters' heads. There are two different spots in the book where both of the main characters are thinking about roads traveled that have made them end up at the point they're at -- Vanning in a literal sense, Fraser in a more figurative one. I mean -- what a great compare/contrast situation!