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Brainquake
The bagmen who transport money for organized crime live by a set of rules: no personal relationships, no ties, no women...and never, ever look inside the bag you're carrying. Paul Page was the perfect bagman, despite suffering from a rare brain disorder. But that ended the day he saw a beautiful Mob wife become a Mob widow. Now Paul is going to break every rule he's lived by-even if it means he might be left holding the bag.
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First published August 12, 2014
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About the author
Samuel Fuller
50 books39 followersSamuel Michael Fuller was an American film director, screenwriter and novelist. Many of his films are remembered for their controversial topics and presentations.
Fuller's family moved from Worcester, Massachusetts to New York City after the death of his father. At the age of 12, he began working as a newspaper copyboy. He became a crime reporter at age 17, working for the New York Evening Graphic. During the Depression years he traveled across the United States by hitchhiking and riding trains. By the time the U.S. entered WWII Fuller had writing credit for several screenplays and had published in the pulp fiction trade.
Samuel Fuller served as an infantryman in World War II with the famed U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division, 16th Infantry Regiment. He fought in North Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany and was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Combat Infantryman's Badge (CIB). The movie The Big Red One (written and directed by Fuller) is considered to be a semi-autobiographical account of his war experience.
Fuller's family moved from Worcester, Massachusetts to New York City after the death of his father. At the age of 12, he began working as a newspaper copyboy. He became a crime reporter at age 17, working for the New York Evening Graphic. During the Depression years he traveled across the United States by hitchhiking and riding trains. By the time the U.S. entered WWII Fuller had writing credit for several screenplays and had published in the pulp fiction trade.
Samuel Fuller served as an infantryman in World War II with the famed U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division, 16th Infantry Regiment. He fought in North Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany and was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Combat Infantryman's Badge (CIB). The movie The Big Red One (written and directed by Fuller) is considered to be a semi-autobiographical account of his war experience.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
June 19, 2021
"Brainquake" is a story about one of the most unusual characters in hardboiled crime fiction: Paul, who has a cipher for a face, who doesn't like to talk much because his voice sounds like sandpaper, who has few friends, who lives in a small seemingly abandoned shack, and who has "brainquakes" or seizures where the whole world turns pink. Paul is also a bagman for the organization and races around town in his taxicab (his front so he can pretend to have a legitimate job) and makes pickups and drop-offs all over the five boroughs. He is trusted with sums of cash one can barely imagine carrying around. As a bagman, you have no friends, no lovers, no wife, no family. No one you would confide in. When you retire (if you make it that far), there is a special hotel where the retired bagmen live. Paul might not be suited for most jobs, but he is suited for this one. He picks the best routes around town, racing to escape the pirates who are always out there ready to grab the loot.
Paul likes to sit in the park on his days off and read poetry. While sitting in the park so engaged, Paul falls in love with "Ivory Face," who just happens to be a mobster's widow. What else can he call her when he doesn't know her name? He brings her flowers and poems and his whole world turns upside down when they have to flee with $10 million in a bag he was carrying at the time and with the police and the organization out to get them.
There are probably very few books with heroes like this one. This book is hardboiled crime with double-crosses and mistrust. It is a love story. It is a coming-of-age novel about a boy who grows into a man the hard way. The book is told in the third person, mostly through Paul's eyes and the reader feels his confusion when his brain starts to quake and the world falls apart. He feels it as a nutcracker squeezing his brain. He hears the music of a flute and "tidal wave of blood drown[s] his brain." The story also gets told through other people's eyes and the reader gets to know things that Paul doesn't.
It starts off in a bit of a confusing manner, but when there are bombs in baby carriages and gunshots echoing in the park, it is confusing to anyone sitting there, particularly one whose world collapses at times into pink.
It is written in a terrific prose, starting with the following line: "Sixty seconds before the baby shot its father, leaves fell lazily in Central Park." Within the next few paragraphs, the reader hears that Paul suffocated his mother with a pillow and that he has an appointment with a doctor who thinks he can cure Paul's brain. Wow! There's a lot of different things going on in just the start of this book and it will be a few pages before any of it makes sense. Patricide and matricide are just the start of things here.
There are lots of great characters here like the six-foot tall police woman who takes no nonsense from anyone and the boss who crosses her office "shining like the star of a Paris collection. Legs perfect, slim. The kind that would give Paris couture a blood transfusion." But, the key character is always Paul. He is a "cipher." His features are easily forgotten. Not a single distinctive quality that anyone could describe. And, his eyes were dead and expressionless.
It is a very enjoyable story and there are few stories like it anywhere in any genre. Hats off to Hard Case Crime for digging up this forgotten treasure.
Paul likes to sit in the park on his days off and read poetry. While sitting in the park so engaged, Paul falls in love with "Ivory Face," who just happens to be a mobster's widow. What else can he call her when he doesn't know her name? He brings her flowers and poems and his whole world turns upside down when they have to flee with $10 million in a bag he was carrying at the time and with the police and the organization out to get them.
There are probably very few books with heroes like this one. This book is hardboiled crime with double-crosses and mistrust. It is a love story. It is a coming-of-age novel about a boy who grows into a man the hard way. The book is told in the third person, mostly through Paul's eyes and the reader feels his confusion when his brain starts to quake and the world falls apart. He feels it as a nutcracker squeezing his brain. He hears the music of a flute and "tidal wave of blood drown[s] his brain." The story also gets told through other people's eyes and the reader gets to know things that Paul doesn't.
It starts off in a bit of a confusing manner, but when there are bombs in baby carriages and gunshots echoing in the park, it is confusing to anyone sitting there, particularly one whose world collapses at times into pink.
It is written in a terrific prose, starting with the following line: "Sixty seconds before the baby shot its father, leaves fell lazily in Central Park." Within the next few paragraphs, the reader hears that Paul suffocated his mother with a pillow and that he has an appointment with a doctor who thinks he can cure Paul's brain. Wow! There's a lot of different things going on in just the start of this book and it will be a few pages before any of it makes sense. Patricide and matricide are just the start of things here.
There are lots of great characters here like the six-foot tall police woman who takes no nonsense from anyone and the boss who crosses her office "shining like the star of a Paris collection. Legs perfect, slim. The kind that would give Paris couture a blood transfusion." But, the key character is always Paul. He is a "cipher." His features are easily forgotten. Not a single distinctive quality that anyone could describe. And, his eyes were dead and expressionless.
It is a very enjoyable story and there are few stories like it anywhere in any genre. Hats off to Hard Case Crime for digging up this forgotten treasure.
December 30, 2014
There is a lot to like about BRAINQUAKE; it's a mob book that goes beyond the stereotypical hit/murder/mayhem/gun mole type tales traditional to this genre, instead focusing on a formally mute bagman and his violent hallucinations aka 'brainquakes'.
Paul was born into the life of organised crime - his father worked in it and died in it. As a favor to Paul's father following his death, the Boss took Paul under her wing and proceeded to turn this blank faced man into an exceptionally gifted bagman, one with a penchant for stopping 'pirates' and a fierce sense of loyalty.
The key to being a successful bagman is to be an anonymous face in the crowd, have no attachment to friends/family/or partners beyond the occasional romp in the sack - Paul is fine with this, until he's not. When a chance encounter, one born of violence and death, unites single mother and former wife to a recently deceased underworld figure Michelle with Paul, he quickly succumbs to a feeling he hasn't felt before - shortly thereafter he's got a bag full of cash and a ticket out of the country.
Written from multiple character perspectives, BRAINQUAKE kept me guessing the whole way through. It's one of those rare crime books where you know who the key players are but don't know who'll survive or where the next bullet will come from.
One of the best books Hardcase Crime has published without a doubt.
Review first appeared on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
Paul was born into the life of organised crime - his father worked in it and died in it. As a favor to Paul's father following his death, the Boss took Paul under her wing and proceeded to turn this blank faced man into an exceptionally gifted bagman, one with a penchant for stopping 'pirates' and a fierce sense of loyalty.
The key to being a successful bagman is to be an anonymous face in the crowd, have no attachment to friends/family/or partners beyond the occasional romp in the sack - Paul is fine with this, until he's not. When a chance encounter, one born of violence and death, unites single mother and former wife to a recently deceased underworld figure Michelle with Paul, he quickly succumbs to a feeling he hasn't felt before - shortly thereafter he's got a bag full of cash and a ticket out of the country.
Written from multiple character perspectives, BRAINQUAKE kept me guessing the whole way through. It's one of those rare crime books where you know who the key players are but don't know who'll survive or where the next bullet will come from.
One of the best books Hardcase Crime has published without a doubt.
Review first appeared on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
October 31, 2024
This little known, 5-star noir gem, by the offbeat writer-director Samuel Fuller was first published in France in 1993 and first published in English (sic) by Hard Case Crime in 2014. It totally works.
Read
April 7, 2018An insane bag man gets involved with an unscrupulous gun moll. I had not, as of reading this, seen anything by legendary director Samuel Fuller, but whatever his cinematic merits he was not much of a novelist. The kind of hyper-stylized crime novel which more closely resembles a superhero or sci-fi story, a setting basically unrecognizable (not in a good way), and characters that are equally loosely drawn. It also relies upon characters coincidentally running into one another in a way that more shatters than stretches credulity. Not good
December 28, 2019
Maybe only 2 1/2 stars. A crackerjack opening to this odd novel which is, in the end, wildly uneven. The prose is supple in places, purple in others. And the plot, the driving mechanism that kept me turning the pages, became more and more preposterous, more and more jerry-rigged, though, to be fair, I read right to the end.
February 4, 2021
What an amazing noir story written by an amazing man. What a life Fuller had. Damn. An all round real life hard case.
This novel takes every rule of noir crime writing and turns it in its head. With highly original, plot twists, characters and flow this book really deserves to be read by everyone.
I’m definitely going to be reading more of Fuller’s work!
5/5 highly recommended
This novel takes every rule of noir crime writing and turns it in its head. With highly original, plot twists, characters and flow this book really deserves to be read by everyone.
I’m definitely going to be reading more of Fuller’s work!
5/5 highly recommended
March 26, 2023
Finally finished reading this book I borrowed from my friend Laird five years ago. Laird, you can have it back now. Thanks!
May 21, 2019
Who would have thought that noted film director Samuel Fuller was also an outstanding writer in the noir genre. Brainquake is a superb novel that almost never got published in English: The manuscript was found by the author's widow after his death in 1997.
Paul Page is a bagman who delivers obscenely large amounts of money, mostly illegally derived, to a company called Pegasus. For over ten years, Paul is the perfect anonymous bagman, escaping "pirates" who are after the funds he transports.
All would have gone on like this except that Paul falls in love with a young widow whom he calls Ivory Face. And, in thinking he is saving her life, he walks away with her, her infant, and a bag containing ten million dollars. When this happens, he is pursued by the New York Police Department's tall statuesque black lieutenant named Helen Zara and by a mob assassin called only Father Flanagan, because his favorite disguise is as a priest.
It all comes to a head in Paris in a furious exchange of gunshots as Paul is suffering from one of his "brainquakes," severe migraine headaches that often involve visions.
Paul Page is a bagman who delivers obscenely large amounts of money, mostly illegally derived, to a company called Pegasus. For over ten years, Paul is the perfect anonymous bagman, escaping "pirates" who are after the funds he transports.
All would have gone on like this except that Paul falls in love with a young widow whom he calls Ivory Face. And, in thinking he is saving her life, he walks away with her, her infant, and a bag containing ten million dollars. When this happens, he is pursued by the New York Police Department's tall statuesque black lieutenant named Helen Zara and by a mob assassin called only Father Flanagan, because his favorite disguise is as a priest.
It all comes to a head in Paris in a furious exchange of gunshots as Paul is suffering from one of his "brainquakes," severe migraine headaches that often involve visions.
did-not-finish
September 2, 2019Halfway through. This one is worth no more of my time.
January 29, 2015
If you want screwball pulp entertainment, look no further. Reads like Sam Fuller took a bunch of his past film scripts and dropped them into a blender, with writing that's like Goodis on caffeine. Unfortunately it's not entirely cohesive and goes into some weird directions in terms of plot, but if you're a die-hard Fuller fan you know to sometimes expect that from his storytelling. On the other hand if you don't know the man's movies or aren't a fan, I'd drop this book's rating down to 3 out of 5 rather than my 4-star rating.
Of note: This edition unfortunately has some weird typos with regards to character names. At least in one scene in particular a character is being interrogated about their dead partner and the book accidentally shifts gears and begins referring to the guy being interrogated by the dead guys name. Maybe that's how it was in the manuscript and they decided to keep it, but if so it's a weird decision.
Also of note: If you've heard Fuller speak in movies or interviews, it's hella fun to imagine Fuller reading each line in this book to you. At least it was for me.
Of note: This edition unfortunately has some weird typos with regards to character names. At least in one scene in particular a character is being interrogated about their dead partner and the book accidentally shifts gears and begins referring to the guy being interrogated by the dead guys name. Maybe that's how it was in the manuscript and they decided to keep it, but if so it's a weird decision.
Also of note: If you've heard Fuller speak in movies or interviews, it's hella fun to imagine Fuller reading each line in this book to you. At least it was for me.
January 6, 2015
I want to say I love this, but it is a very "I kind of like it." I want to love it because it's Samuel Fuller, but reading the book, I thought "wow this is a bit long." if the book was shorter, leaner, and just focused on three or four of its main characters, I would love it. But parts of it, in a narrative sense, drags, and overall the book could have been great, if it was edited (narrative-way and length), but alas, it is what it is. Not all the characters are equal in weight to me. I like Paul, and I like "the father" and if the book just focused on those two, I think this would have been a fantastic noir work of fiction. Nevertheless, I am grateful for Hard Case Crime in putting this book out - I just wished it was a tad better.
November 3, 2021
Fuller's last novel might be his most sensational thriller. A protagonist who runs money for the mob and has mind-splintering hallucinations? A woman who plays multiple sides in a game of relationship cat and mouse? A hitman who dresses as a priest and crucifies his hits? A man who is assassinated by a gun rigged to a baby's toy string in a baby carriage...in the opening scene??
Fuller pulls out all the stops in this thoroughly entertaining crime novel.
Fuller pulls out all the stops in this thoroughly entertaining crime novel.
July 1, 2016
I've fallen into the rabbit hole that is HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS and it's stories like this that have trapped me. An absolute page turner where anything can happen and does to your classic noir mob. and dame types. Totally unpredictable!
June 17, 2016
I know this is Fuller's last book and it's great that Hard Case Crime published it but it has to be said the whole thing is a bit weird.
More here (review includes spoilers!):
http://a60books.blogspot.ie/2015/08/b...
More here (review includes spoilers!):
http://a60books.blogspot.ie/2015/08/b...
January 3, 2021
Sam Fuller was an incredible director from late-period noir to classic WWII films, but that doesn't really excuse this book, which I found unreadable. Never before published in English, it should have perhaps remained forgotten.
July 21, 2017
"Brainquake" is a story about one of the most unusual characters in hardboiled crime fiction: Paul, who has a cipher for a face, who doesn't like to talk much because his voice sounds like sandpaper, who has few friends, who lives in a small seemingly abandoned shack, and who has "brainquakes" or seizures where the whole world turns pink. Paul is also a bagman for the organization and races around town in his taxicab (his front so he can pretend to have a legitimate job) and makes pickups and drop-offs all over the five boroughs. He is trusted with sums of cash one can barely imagine carrying around. As a bagman, you have no friends, no lovers, no wife, no family. No one you would confide in. When you retire (if you make it that far), there is a special hotel where the retired bagmen live. Paul might not be suited for most jobs, but he is suited for this one. He picks the best routes around town, racing to escape the pirates who are always out there ready to grab the loot.
Paul likes to sit in the park on his days off and read poetry. While sitting in the park so engaged, Paul falls in love with "Ivory Face," who just happens to be a mobster's widow. What else can he call her when he doesn't know her name? He brings her flowers and poems and his whole world turns upside down when they have to flee with $10 million in a bag he was carrying at the time and with the police and the organization out to get them.
There are probably very few books with heroes like this one. This book is hardboiled crime with double-crosses and mistrust. It is a love story. It is a coming-of-age novel about a boy who grows into a man the hard way. The book is told in the third person, mostly through Paul's eyes and the reader feels his confusion when his brain starts to quake and the world falls apart. He feels it as a nutcracker squeezing his brain. He hears the music of a flute and "tidal wave of blood drown[s] his brain." The story also gets told through other people's eyes and the reader gets to know things that Paul doesn't.
It starts off in a bit of a confusing manner, but when there are bombs in baby carriages and gunshots echoing in the park, it is confusing to anyone sitting there, particularly one whose world collapses at times into pink.
It is written in a terrific prose, starting with the following line: "Sixty seconds before the baby shot its father, leaves fell lazily in Central Park." Within the next few paragraphs, the reader hears that Paul suffocated his mother with a pillow and that he has an appointment with a doctor who thinks he can cure Paul's brain. Wow! There's a lot of different things going on in just the start of this book and it will be a few pages before any of it makes sense. Patricide and matricide are just the start of things here.
There are lots of great characters here like the six-foot tall police woman who takes no nonsense from anyone and the boss who crosses her office "shining like the star of a Paris collection. Legs perfect, slim. The kind that would give Paris couture a blood transfusion." But, the key character is always Paul. He is a "cipher." His features are easily forgotten. Not a single distinctive quality that anyone could describe. And, his eyes were dead and expressionless.
It is a very enjoyable story and there are few stories like it anywhere in any genre. Hats off to Hard Case Crime for digging up this forgotten treasure.
Paul likes to sit in the park on his days off and read poetry. While sitting in the park so engaged, Paul falls in love with "Ivory Face," who just happens to be a mobster's widow. What else can he call her when he doesn't know her name? He brings her flowers and poems and his whole world turns upside down when they have to flee with $10 million in a bag he was carrying at the time and with the police and the organization out to get them.
There are probably very few books with heroes like this one. This book is hardboiled crime with double-crosses and mistrust. It is a love story. It is a coming-of-age novel about a boy who grows into a man the hard way. The book is told in the third person, mostly through Paul's eyes and the reader feels his confusion when his brain starts to quake and the world falls apart. He feels it as a nutcracker squeezing his brain. He hears the music of a flute and "tidal wave of blood drown[s] his brain." The story also gets told through other people's eyes and the reader gets to know things that Paul doesn't.
It starts off in a bit of a confusing manner, but when there are bombs in baby carriages and gunshots echoing in the park, it is confusing to anyone sitting there, particularly one whose world collapses at times into pink.
It is written in a terrific prose, starting with the following line: "Sixty seconds before the baby shot its father, leaves fell lazily in Central Park." Within the next few paragraphs, the reader hears that Paul suffocated his mother with a pillow and that he has an appointment with a doctor who thinks he can cure Paul's brain. Wow! There's a lot of different things going on in just the start of this book and it will be a few pages before any of it makes sense. Patricide and matricide are just the start of things here.
There are lots of great characters here like the six-foot tall police woman who takes no nonsense from anyone and the boss who crosses her office "shining like the star of a Paris collection. Legs perfect, slim. The kind that would give Paris couture a blood transfusion." But, the key character is always Paul. He is a "cipher." His features are easily forgotten. Not a single distinctive quality that anyone could describe. And, his eyes were dead and expressionless.
It is a very enjoyable story and there are few stories like it anywhere in any genre. Hats off to Hard Case Crime for digging up this forgotten treasure.
November 25, 2017
I've always been a big fan of Fuller's films, but hadn't realized he'd written any prose fiction until I stumbled across this. I'm also a big fan of crime novels, so I was looking forward to Fuller's off-kilter sensibilities when I picked it up. Although it was written in the early 1990s and makes references that date the story to that time, it very much feels like it's set in the 1970s.
The antihero at the heart is Paul Page, an emotionally empty man who works as a bagman for the mafia. That is to say, he's a courier who picks up and delivers money around the New York area -- sometimes millions -- so that it's laundered. The mechanics of this are more or less explained, but it never quite makes much logical sense either. But that's not really that important -- what is important is that Paul also suffers from the titular headaches/hallucinations, which come across as a form of epilepsy. Actually, those aren't really that important either -- the plot is really centered around him falling for the widow of a small time gangster, her and her baby, who he feels the need to protect.
Of course, she's working an angle -- just trying to string him along so she and her lover can score off him. Soon enough, they're on the run from his boss, his boss's boss (who happens to somehow also be the leading anti-drug philanthropist in the country), and the hitman sent to retire him (the hitman has a gimmick where he dresses as a priest and crucifies his victims), as well as an NYPD detective. The action eventually shifts from New York to Paris, where a resistance hero turned tugboat captain is added to the overly-colorful cast of characters.
All of this wackiness was OK by me, until the final third of the book, when the plot requires coincidence heaped upon coincidence, to the point of absurdity. I'll just say that the story turns several times on characters happening to run into each other in the middle of Paris, even though there's no real reason for any of them to be in Paris other than they need to start looking somewhere. At that point, other elements of the book start to fall apart as well, and none of the craziness pays off in any meaningful way. There's a potentially interesting story in here somewhere, but it would take a whole lot of editing and reworking to bring it out -- much as I love the man's messy films, this book is a mess I can't recommend.
The antihero at the heart is Paul Page, an emotionally empty man who works as a bagman for the mafia. That is to say, he's a courier who picks up and delivers money around the New York area -- sometimes millions -- so that it's laundered. The mechanics of this are more or less explained, but it never quite makes much logical sense either. But that's not really that important -- what is important is that Paul also suffers from the titular headaches/hallucinations, which come across as a form of epilepsy. Actually, those aren't really that important either -- the plot is really centered around him falling for the widow of a small time gangster, her and her baby, who he feels the need to protect.
Of course, she's working an angle -- just trying to string him along so she and her lover can score off him. Soon enough, they're on the run from his boss, his boss's boss (who happens to somehow also be the leading anti-drug philanthropist in the country), and the hitman sent to retire him (the hitman has a gimmick where he dresses as a priest and crucifies his victims), as well as an NYPD detective. The action eventually shifts from New York to Paris, where a resistance hero turned tugboat captain is added to the overly-colorful cast of characters.
All of this wackiness was OK by me, until the final third of the book, when the plot requires coincidence heaped upon coincidence, to the point of absurdity. I'll just say that the story turns several times on characters happening to run into each other in the middle of Paris, even though there's no real reason for any of them to be in Paris other than they need to start looking somewhere. At that point, other elements of the book start to fall apart as well, and none of the craziness pays off in any meaningful way. There's a potentially interesting story in here somewhere, but it would take a whole lot of editing and reworking to bring it out -- much as I love the man's messy films, this book is a mess I can't recommend.
February 21, 2021
Wish I could say I loved this. I can't. But I can say I liked it. The protagonist really has the odds stacked against him. He has autism, a speach impediment, and some form of epilepsy that occasionally causes him to be violent. And I don't want to give anything away except for the fact that nobody is really on his side. Well I guess he has a couple of people on his side, but they really pay the price for being friendly with him. So plot-wise, this is very interesting and moves at a brisk pace. We get a glimpse of his life as a bagman for the mafia. Paul Page shows himself to be very capable and good at making quick life or death decisions. But when it comes to dealing with others, he's a mess.
A couple of fundamental things wrong with this, despite the excellent plot and pacing. One is the first chapter. Call me old-fashioned. But I think that no matter what, a great story needs a great hook within the first couple of paragraphs of the first chapter. This one is a mess. The reason being that it's from the perspective of Paul's warped mind and only really makes sense after you have read enough to know what is going on.
My second gripe is with the characters. Many of the supporting cast is interesting and well-rounded. Then they are "cut short" for lack of a better term. Without giving anything a way, I'll just say that a few key cast members are abruptly killed or make strange decisions that don't fit the personalities they were given. It almost feels to me like Fuller wanted to do more, but decided to cut things short to round out the story. Maybe since this was written at the end of the director's life, and never published in English before, it was finished up by someone else. This is just my own personal guess, but it feels that way. To sum up my feelings: this was a good story with potential that needed just a little bit more breathing space to be a really great novel.
A couple of fundamental things wrong with this, despite the excellent plot and pacing. One is the first chapter. Call me old-fashioned. But I think that no matter what, a great story needs a great hook within the first couple of paragraphs of the first chapter. This one is a mess. The reason being that it's from the perspective of Paul's warped mind and only really makes sense after you have read enough to know what is going on.
My second gripe is with the characters. Many of the supporting cast is interesting and well-rounded. Then they are "cut short" for lack of a better term. Without giving anything a way, I'll just say that a few key cast members are abruptly killed or make strange decisions that don't fit the personalities they were given. It almost feels to me like Fuller wanted to do more, but decided to cut things short to round out the story. Maybe since this was written at the end of the director's life, and never published in English before, it was finished up by someone else. This is just my own personal guess, but it feels that way. To sum up my feelings: this was a good story with potential that needed just a little bit more breathing space to be a really great novel.
August 30, 2020
This title was a part of a StoryBundle centered on hardboiled novels. I've read quite a few so far, picking them on the merit of their title, and maybe the cover, although they look pretty much the same, femme fatale and ragged dude. In some cases, I know the author, but not in this case. Samuel Fuller is probably better known for his movies than for the books, but this book stands quite on its own.
It tells the story of a bagman, a messenger for the mob, who has a crush on a girl, taking every possible occassion to check on her, mainly quietly, but eventually bringing her roses. At the same time, and in stressful situations, he suffers "brainquakes", hallucinatory and violent seizures, which he was just starting to get treated.
The plot, from there on, follows very closely the noir tropes: there's conning, there's murder, and there are boat trips in France, which are probably not so noir, but noir is in French, so let's say it does.
The score might easily go down to three; there's too much redshirting for my taste, but the main problem I see is that too many chance encounters happen, to the point that the whole plot hinges, once and again, on someone meeting someone else by chance. But well, shit happens, so why not, so let's keep the 4 stars, an entertaining and genre-appropriate reading which takes just a while.
It tells the story of a bagman, a messenger for the mob, who has a crush on a girl, taking every possible occassion to check on her, mainly quietly, but eventually bringing her roses. At the same time, and in stressful situations, he suffers "brainquakes", hallucinatory and violent seizures, which he was just starting to get treated.
The plot, from there on, follows very closely the noir tropes: there's conning, there's murder, and there are boat trips in France, which are probably not so noir, but noir is in French, so let's say it does.
The score might easily go down to three; there's too much redshirting for my taste, but the main problem I see is that too many chance encounters happen, to the point that the whole plot hinges, once and again, on someone meeting someone else by chance. But well, shit happens, so why not, so let's keep the 4 stars, an entertaining and genre-appropriate reading which takes just a while.
February 5, 2019
I was wondering where this "lost" book by Sam Fuller came from. Reading it, I assumed this was a first draft Fuller had written and then discarded because he thought it wasn't very good. Hardcase crime dug it up and published it, because why not? That is not the case. This book is actually a finished project and the book was published in France.
As a filmmaker, Fuller's stories were often "overheated" and stretched credibility, but this book is ridiculous. We are expected to believe that this "bagman," who suffered a disability all these years but still did his job, went off the rails because of a woman he didn't even know. Oh, and there is a 6'3" black female police detective, but don't expect a commentary about race or gender from that character. And there is a hitman who dresses like a priest, easily the coolest idea about the book, and should have been the main character.
This novel reads like a screenplay, but a bad one. Characters are not well developed. Their motivations make no sense. The pacing is slow, redundant and clunky. Not to mention the book is simply too long.
As a filmmaker, Fuller's stories were often "overheated" and stretched credibility, but this book is ridiculous. We are expected to believe that this "bagman," who suffered a disability all these years but still did his job, went off the rails because of a woman he didn't even know. Oh, and there is a 6'3" black female police detective, but don't expect a commentary about race or gender from that character. And there is a hitman who dresses like a priest, easily the coolest idea about the book, and should have been the main character.
This novel reads like a screenplay, but a bad one. Characters are not well developed. Their motivations make no sense. The pacing is slow, redundant and clunky. Not to mention the book is simply too long.
January 8, 2020
Brainquake was truly terrible. I have owned this book for a number of years-I should have listened more closely to my instincts and not read it. Samuel Fuiller was a controversial director (The Big Red One, Shock Corridor) who apparently has been an influence on a lot of other moviemakers such as Wim Wenders and Quentin Tarantino. None of which prevented Brainquake, Fuller's last novel that had previously never been published in English, from being awful. The author relies entirely too much on coincidence. Suspension of disbelief is something Fuller seems to have had only a passing familiarity with. I don't give a hoot how "unique" our brain diseased protagonist is-I found I could not believe in him or anyone else in this book. I'd compare this reading experience to a less than gripping puppet show, only the puppet show would be more entertaining.
May 24, 2022
Could Have Used Some More Work
This was not a novel that was published during Samuel Fuller's lifetime. It was found amongst his papers after he died and it needed some work. The pacing is off, it drags significantly when the action shifts to France, there is some repetition in the middle, and there are some verb tense issues - minor ones I grant you, but I noticed them.
It supposedly takes place in the 1990s, it's mentioned Bush is in office and the War on Drugs is on, but it feels like a 50s or 60s book. The way people live, the way the gangsters make their money, how the bagmen operate, all have a very old-school feel to them. It would have done better to leave these characters in the past. All in all, it's not a bad noir book, it just could have been better.
This was not a novel that was published during Samuel Fuller's lifetime. It was found amongst his papers after he died and it needed some work. The pacing is off, it drags significantly when the action shifts to France, there is some repetition in the middle, and there are some verb tense issues - minor ones I grant you, but I noticed them.
It supposedly takes place in the 1990s, it's mentioned Bush is in office and the War on Drugs is on, but it feels like a 50s or 60s book. The way people live, the way the gangsters make their money, how the bagmen operate, all have a very old-school feel to them. It would have done better to leave these characters in the past. All in all, it's not a bad noir book, it just could have been better.
February 1, 2022
This was a great story that was very poorly written. In fact I'd say that 30-35% of the book was unnecessary filler. This was about a mob bagman that gets conned by a beautiful woman to run off with his bag containing 15 million dollars. This was basically a tragic story of a loner getting taken in hot woman who just wanted his money and him to help her come up in the underworld of organized crime. Like I said earlier a great story but just horribly written.
January 1, 2020
Probably the craziest noir I have read. The story is pretty routine, but the characters are what truly elevates this tale! Fuller makes each character, even one that appears for just a chapter, fleshed out with backstory. This is especially awesome when you have characters like opium addicted money launderers who have conversations with the Greek poet Homer while high on said opium.
Read
April 26, 2020Really cool to see a Samuel Fuller work written and set in the '90's...he would've been in his late 70's or early 80's when he wrote this, and it goes just as hard as his earlier stuff. Shame he never got to adapt it to film -- this would obviously make for a great movie -- and I'm not sure how many other directors could pull it off.
September 4, 2014
I don’t know what it is. Maybe I was born too late. I’ve mentioned before how much I love vintage crime, the type of thing that was being written for the dime novels of the late thirties and forties. Heck, even some of the muck from the fifties I’ve managed to dredge up sounds pretty good by comparison to the stuff on the shelves today … but thank goodness for the team at Hard Case Crime. Since their inception, they’ve been committed to bringing those days old back to blazing, bloody life, even if that means finding something penned much more current but not given the Hard Case treatment.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last three paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the product packaging: “The bagmen who transport money for organized crime live by a special set of rules: no relationships, no ties … no alcohol, no women … no talking … and never, ever look inside the bag you’re carrying.”
If that alone doesn’t tickle your fancy, then you’ve really little to no interest in what’s trapped between this cover. This yarn by writer/director Samuel Fuller blisters with action and intrigue, the type of which usually gets ignored by so much of ‘mainstream’ literature. After all, how many critics have essentially dismissed the mystery as having no legitimate place in literary history? I’ve read those criticisms on more than one occasion, and all I can say is if they don’t want ‘em then I’ll be happy to read ‘em as time permits.
BRAINQUAKE starts with a riveting set-up – a murder seemingly committed by the least likely suspect – and then it continues to amaze and amuse from there. Paul Page appears to be an ordinary bagman – non-descript face, blends into a crowd, keeps his nose where it belongs and minces words with no one – but secretly he’s led a life troubled by a unique medical condition: he suffers what he calls a ‘brainquake,’ which resembles a seizure except for the fact that these episodes cause hallucinations that can lead him to acting out violently from what he sees. And they’re entirely unpredictable; though Paul’s been able to identify a few warning signs (some sounds accompanying a change of scene invoking the color pink), the man is almost entirely beside himself when they occur.
To make matters worse, he’s done the unthinkable – he’s gone against the grain and taken interest in a woman. She’s no ordinary woman – Michelle is the widow to a former gangster, and that means the forces of evil have never been all that far away from her. Despite an outer appearance of being an angel, she’s definitely not opposed to bending the law when it suits her needs. And she’s used to getting what she wants, especially when it involves large sums of money that can’t be traced back to her.
These two make an unlikely couple, and that’s mostly because even the reader knows whatever happiness they could’ve found (under different circumstances) wouldn’t have lasted anyway. Besides, it ain’t a ‘couple’ when one of the two isn’t being honest. Despite the fact that he’s been nothing but reliable for the criminal organization he serves, Paul is about to break a few rules in pursuit of a life he should’ve known was never truly possible. Not for people like him.
Fuller works his way comfortably around crime, weaving a cautionary tale about greed and envy only the way a true master storyteller could. BRAINQUAKE only lags in a few places – those weighed down by some incidental character exposition that probably would’ve been trimmed if publication had happened under different circumstances – but that isn’t to say it has any ‘fat’ on its bones. The director liked his characters the way he liked his dialogue – lean, quick, and to the point. Look past these lesser passages, and I suspect you’ll enjoy this one as much as I did.
BRAINQUAKE (2014) is published by Titan Books under the Hard Case Crime imprint. It was written by Samuel Fuller. It retails (softcover) for the low, low price of $12.95, and that’s a bargain so far as this fan is concerned.
HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION POSSIBLE. Listen up: I devoured BRAINQUAKE in two sittings. It was that riveting, that compelling, that interesting. I’ve no idea when Fuller wrote it (clearly there are references in there that would put it in the 1990’s) but it reads, burns, and feels like something written decades earlier … back when men were men and women – real women – refused to be kept on a leash, instead choosing to tempt fate with whatever feminine wiles they’d muster, and they were deadly like knives. Massively entertaining, just the way you expect ‘em from the peeps at Hard Case Crime.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Titan Books provided me with a reading copy of BRAINQUAKE by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review; and their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last three paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the product packaging: “The bagmen who transport money for organized crime live by a special set of rules: no relationships, no ties … no alcohol, no women … no talking … and never, ever look inside the bag you’re carrying.”
If that alone doesn’t tickle your fancy, then you’ve really little to no interest in what’s trapped between this cover. This yarn by writer/director Samuel Fuller blisters with action and intrigue, the type of which usually gets ignored by so much of ‘mainstream’ literature. After all, how many critics have essentially dismissed the mystery as having no legitimate place in literary history? I’ve read those criticisms on more than one occasion, and all I can say is if they don’t want ‘em then I’ll be happy to read ‘em as time permits.
BRAINQUAKE starts with a riveting set-up – a murder seemingly committed by the least likely suspect – and then it continues to amaze and amuse from there. Paul Page appears to be an ordinary bagman – non-descript face, blends into a crowd, keeps his nose where it belongs and minces words with no one – but secretly he’s led a life troubled by a unique medical condition: he suffers what he calls a ‘brainquake,’ which resembles a seizure except for the fact that these episodes cause hallucinations that can lead him to acting out violently from what he sees. And they’re entirely unpredictable; though Paul’s been able to identify a few warning signs (some sounds accompanying a change of scene invoking the color pink), the man is almost entirely beside himself when they occur.
To make matters worse, he’s done the unthinkable – he’s gone against the grain and taken interest in a woman. She’s no ordinary woman – Michelle is the widow to a former gangster, and that means the forces of evil have never been all that far away from her. Despite an outer appearance of being an angel, she’s definitely not opposed to bending the law when it suits her needs. And she’s used to getting what she wants, especially when it involves large sums of money that can’t be traced back to her.
These two make an unlikely couple, and that’s mostly because even the reader knows whatever happiness they could’ve found (under different circumstances) wouldn’t have lasted anyway. Besides, it ain’t a ‘couple’ when one of the two isn’t being honest. Despite the fact that he’s been nothing but reliable for the criminal organization he serves, Paul is about to break a few rules in pursuit of a life he should’ve known was never truly possible. Not for people like him.
Fuller works his way comfortably around crime, weaving a cautionary tale about greed and envy only the way a true master storyteller could. BRAINQUAKE only lags in a few places – those weighed down by some incidental character exposition that probably would’ve been trimmed if publication had happened under different circumstances – but that isn’t to say it has any ‘fat’ on its bones. The director liked his characters the way he liked his dialogue – lean, quick, and to the point. Look past these lesser passages, and I suspect you’ll enjoy this one as much as I did.
BRAINQUAKE (2014) is published by Titan Books under the Hard Case Crime imprint. It was written by Samuel Fuller. It retails (softcover) for the low, low price of $12.95, and that’s a bargain so far as this fan is concerned.
HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION POSSIBLE. Listen up: I devoured BRAINQUAKE in two sittings. It was that riveting, that compelling, that interesting. I’ve no idea when Fuller wrote it (clearly there are references in there that would put it in the 1990’s) but it reads, burns, and feels like something written decades earlier … back when men were men and women – real women – refused to be kept on a leash, instead choosing to tempt fate with whatever feminine wiles they’d muster, and they were deadly like knives. Massively entertaining, just the way you expect ‘em from the peeps at Hard Case Crime.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Titan Books provided me with a reading copy of BRAINQUAKE by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review; and their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
July 20, 2019
What starts out as a gritty urban crime piece turns into an international thriller with characters appearing deus ex machina.
I like Fuller's style and ear for dialogue but the story was like a runaway train.
I like Fuller's style and ear for dialogue but the story was like a runaway train.
October 15, 2022
Good book. Never read anything like it before. Learned something about the
underworld and was hoping that the books character would get clear
Of his problems. Alas maybe some justice was to be had in the last pages
of the book.
underworld and was hoping that the books character would get clear
Of his problems. Alas maybe some justice was to be had in the last pages
of the book.
July 3, 2023
A pulpy, violent but relentlessly readable grab-bag of a novel that manages to fit in horror, psychology, the detailed workings of ordinary crime and out-and-out romance. It's too bad Fuller didn't get the chance to make the movie.
September 21, 2023
I’m tempted to give it five stars because I thought it was well-written and a great story, but, despite my overall enjoyment, I also thought it was too easy to put down after finishing each chapter. I may think differently about it if I read it again later.
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