| Record Number |
90242 |
| ISBN |
9781883011499 |
| Title |
Crime novels : American noir of the 1950s. |
| Publisher/Date |
New York : Library of America : Distributed to the trade in the U.S. by Penguin Books USA, c1997. |
| Pagination etc. |
892 p. ; 21 cm. |
| Series |
The Library of America 95 |
| Bibliography, etc. note |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 884-892). |
| Contents note |
The Killer Inside Me / Jim Thompson -- The Talented Mr. Ripley / Patricia Highsmith -- Pick Up / Charles Willeford -- Down There / David Goodis -- The Real Cool Killers / Chester Himes. |
| Summary Note |
This adventurous volume, with its companion devoted to the 1930s and 40s, presents a rich vein of modern American writing too often neglected in mainstream literary histories. Evolving out of the terse and violent hardboiled style of the pulp magazines, noir fiction expanded over the decades into a varied and innovative body of writing. Tapping deep roots in the American literary imagination, the novels in this volume explore 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. The raw power of their vernacular style has profoundly influenced contemporary American culture and writing. Far from formulaic, they are ambitious works which bend the rules of genre fiction to their often experimental purposes. |
| Subject |
Detective and mystery stories, American |
| American fiction -- 20th century |
| Detective and mystery fiction. |
| Added title |
The killer inside me |
| The talented Mr Ripley |
| Pick-up |
| Down there |
| The real cool killers |
| Shelf Location |
F |
