Friday means Friday’s
Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott here.
Barry is back today with his review of FAST ONE by Paul Cain.
FAST
ONE (1933) by Paul Cain
reviewed by Barry Ergang
reviewed by Barry Ergang
I can enthusiastically recommend Fast One
to any reader who loves the hardboiled school—especially from the pulp era—but
don’t ask me for a detailed plot summary. That’s next to impossible. Suffice it
to say that a tough character named Gerry Kells, who is visiting L.A. from New
York and who seems to know every major racket boss in southern California, is
in the first chapter framed for a murder he didn’t commit, and who spends the
remainder of the book either dodging or deliberately confronting cops and hoods
with words, fists, and firearms. Along the way he considers trying to take over
L.A.‘s rackets himself.
It’s an aptly titled book because the story roars along at a hectic pace. The pace is aided in no small measure by Cain's staccato prose style, which almost redefines “lean and mean.” But the pace and the story’s complexity are the book’s undoing because there is no characterization for readers to relate to. Most of the players—including the principal female—are referred to only by their last names. The absence of character definition reduces them to mere names on the page. It’s frequently an effort trying to recall from one chapter to another who's who and who's done what to whom.
Fast One has long been hailed as the ne plus ultra of hardboiled gangster tales by the likes of Bill Pronzini, E.R. Hagemann, and Raymond Chandler. David A. Bowman, in his introductory essay to the 1987 Black Lizard edition I have, writes: “Cain took the hardboiled style as far as anyone would want to. Fast One is the Antarctica of hardboiled writing. There is nowhere else to go.”
Forget about any insights into the human condition or any other sorts of profound meanings. Just buckle up and go along on the wild ride.
For more on this novel or the Golden Age of Detection follow the link to the GA Detection wiki. http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Fast-One
It’s an aptly titled book because the story roars along at a hectic pace. The pace is aided in no small measure by Cain's staccato prose style, which almost redefines “lean and mean.” But the pace and the story’s complexity are the book’s undoing because there is no characterization for readers to relate to. Most of the players—including the principal female—are referred to only by their last names. The absence of character definition reduces them to mere names on the page. It’s frequently an effort trying to recall from one chapter to another who's who and who's done what to whom.
Fast One has long been hailed as the ne plus ultra of hardboiled gangster tales by the likes of Bill Pronzini, E.R. Hagemann, and Raymond Chandler. David A. Bowman, in his introductory essay to the 1987 Black Lizard edition I have, writes: “Cain took the hardboiled style as far as anyone would want to. Fast One is the Antarctica of hardboiled writing. There is nowhere else to go.”
Forget about any insights into the human condition or any other sorts of profound meanings. Just buckle up and go along on the wild ride.
For more on this novel or the Golden Age of Detection follow the link to the GA Detection wiki. http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Fast-One
Barry Ergang © 2007, 2014
Former Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Anthology
Magazine and First Senior Editor of Mysterical-E, Derringer winner
Barry Ergang's work has appeared in numerous publications, print and
electronic. His website is http://writetrack.yolasite.com/.
Hi, Kevin and Barry! I'm hosting Friday's Forgotten Books today for Patti Abbott, but unfortunately Typepad (which hosts my blog) had a denial of service attack and is down. They are working to fix it ASAP, so please so stay tuned. My apologies - I'll put up the links when things are back to normal + they'll be up all weekend (and beyond). If necessary, Todd Mason has offered to stand in. I'll let you know one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I think we (as in Typepad) are back in business. Here's the direct FFB link:
ReplyDeletehttp://inreferencetomurder.typepad.com/my_weblog/2014/04/fridays-forgotten-books-post-downtime-edition.html
If you see any errors or omissions, please let me know in the comments or via bv@bvlawson.com
Sorry I missed the memo. Thank you for doing this.
ReplyDelete