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Of Tender Sin
You'll belong to me. And I'll belong to Charlie... The three of us, we'll have a wonderful time.
Alvin Darby is a 29 year old insurance clerk, with a comfortable apartment, a beautiful wife and enough money in the bank not to have to worry. So why does he wake up in the middle of the night tortured by the image of a woman with platinum blonde hair? And why is he suddenly convinced that his wife is having an affair?
Consumed by jealousy and determined to track down the woman with the platinum blonde hair, Alvin leaves his comfortable life to walk the streets of Skid Row intent on murder. Caught up in an underworld of drugs and crime, Alvin is soon out of his depth, and back with his old girlfriend Geraldine, whose seductive silver yellow hair and orange lips seem to hold the key to unlock the dark and terrible sin of his past.
Long unavailable, Of Tender Sin is a brilliant tale of paranoia and jealousy, femmes fatales and dark secrets. With its seering portrayal of the mean streets of Philadelphia and its underworld of drugs and crime, Of Tender Sin is as hard-hitting today as it was when it was first published in 1952.
Introduction by Adrian Wootton.
Goodis captures the bleak desperation of the urban jungle like no other writer before or since. - Neon
A lethally potent cocktail of surreal description, brilliant language, cracker barrel philosophy and gripping obsession. - Adrian Wootton
No-one does existential loners better - The Herald
Alvin Darby is a 29 year old insurance clerk, with a comfortable apartment, a beautiful wife and enough money in the bank not to have to worry. So why does he wake up in the middle of the night tortured by the image of a woman with platinum blonde hair? And why is he suddenly convinced that his wife is having an affair?
Consumed by jealousy and determined to track down the woman with the platinum blonde hair, Alvin leaves his comfortable life to walk the streets of Skid Row intent on murder. Caught up in an underworld of drugs and crime, Alvin is soon out of his depth, and back with his old girlfriend Geraldine, whose seductive silver yellow hair and orange lips seem to hold the key to unlock the dark and terrible sin of his past.
Long unavailable, Of Tender Sin is a brilliant tale of paranoia and jealousy, femmes fatales and dark secrets. With its seering portrayal of the mean streets of Philadelphia and its underworld of drugs and crime, Of Tender Sin is as hard-hitting today as it was when it was first published in 1952.
Introduction by Adrian Wootton.
Goodis captures the bleak desperation of the urban jungle like no other writer before or since. - Neon
A lethally potent cocktail of surreal description, brilliant language, cracker barrel philosophy and gripping obsession. - Adrian Wootton
No-one does existential loners better - The Herald
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
1 person is currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
David Goodis
97 books320 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 - 29 of 29 reviews
September 2, 2016
"It began with a shattered dream"This awesome opening line sets the tone for this brooding, melancholy, fever-dream of a novel, par for the course for a David Goodis book. The book is a bit more bizarre than anything else I've read by Goodis, and it follows normal, working square Alvin Darby, who, in bed one night, has a nervous breakdown and begins to be haunted by and obsessed with platinum blonde hair. The cause of this might be his recurring memory of the blonde hair of his older sister, who he was obsessed with when he was a child. This naturally affects his relationship with his brunette wife Vivian, who can't seem to understand why for weeks, Alvin has been unable to get it up and perform his spousal duties in bed. After his breakdown, things get worse after Alvin overhears Vivian cuddle calling on the phone with another man, and he journeys out, with incestual memories and murder on his mind, onto the snowy streets of Philly's Skid Row; streets filled with rotgut wine, cocaine, flophouses, blackmailers, and gold-digging tramps with platinum blonde hair.
“Winter was gray and mean upon the city and every night was a package of cold bleak hours, like the hours in a cell that had no door.”If this sounds to you like a real downer of a book, then you're right, it is. But that's what you should expect from the poet of despair, David Goodis. But as usual his writing is so poetic and evocative, you can't help but he riveted, and eager to follow the main character as he falls deeper into darkness. If you read a Goodis book expecting a standard crime novel, you'll be pleasantly surprised or terribly disappointed. His novels never have standard villains like crime bosses or serial killers, but his tales are pitch-black noir, and the adversary comes from the inner demons of the protagonists themselves. The action and suspense in Of Tender Sin is more emotional and psychological, with the main character struggling to confront his paranoia, fetishes, sexual insecurities, and feelings of helplessness. In this way, the book reminded me a lot of my favorite Stanley Kubrick movie, Eyes Wide Shut, that dealt with a very similar journey for the main character. This book feels like it was written in a few nights of inspired, manic writing sessions, where I can imagine Goodis typing away in the late hours, binging on wine, whiskey, and cigarettes. This quality makes the plotting feel a bit rushed and uneven but it also gives the book a very earnest, energized feel. And the book probably has the very best prose that I've read so far in a Goodis novel, with passages just pulsing with mood and imagery.
"Under the blanket the outline of her body was slender and displayed a certain innocence, a precious quality far more significant than the elegance of her form. She seemed to radiate kindness and essential goodness, and Darby, trying to measure the value of her, told himself it was immeasurable."
September 30, 2014
Less crime than psycho-pulp, this is an atmospheric journey through the rapid decay (& 11th hour redemption) of a "normal" guy, a semi-professional working stiff in Philadelphia who is suddenly swarmed by his own demons. Dirty demons with platinum blonde hair.
Atmospheric typically means evocations of environment - street scenes, smoky bars with solitary degenerates on stools, drug dens - all well delineated in this book, but the real atmosphere here is internal, as the bulk of the action is a result of sudden mental-takeovers by repressed memories and obsessions and buried guilt, and how these voracious demons warp one's environment and darken one's course through life.
This bears some comparison to many narratives from and about its era - the 50's - as the bright veneer of upright, responsible, nest-egged married professionals is stripped back to reveal the putrid nest of Freudian worms gnawing away at the interiors; all well and good, but there's something else here, a desperate, personal authenticity, that makes it compulsively readable and frightening, and the main character (the locus of terrors) pathetic and pitiable.
Atmospheric typically means evocations of environment - street scenes, smoky bars with solitary degenerates on stools, drug dens - all well delineated in this book, but the real atmosphere here is internal, as the bulk of the action is a result of sudden mental-takeovers by repressed memories and obsessions and buried guilt, and how these voracious demons warp one's environment and darken one's course through life.
This bears some comparison to many narratives from and about its era - the 50's - as the bright veneer of upright, responsible, nest-egged married professionals is stripped back to reveal the putrid nest of Freudian worms gnawing away at the interiors; all well and good, but there's something else here, a desperate, personal authenticity, that makes it compulsively readable and frightening, and the main character (the locus of terrors) pathetic and pitiable.
December 19, 2022
A Shattered Dream
"It began with a shattered dream." The opening sentence of David Goodis' novel "Of Tender Sin" (1952) introduces a noir story of sin, guilt, jealousy, and rage. The book is one of the pulp paperback originals that Goodis (1937 -- 1967) wrote between 1951 -- 1961 about his native Philadelphia. The Library of America has recognized Goodis' value as a writer by including six of his books in its volumes devoted to the best of American writing. Much of Goodis' work, including "Of Tender Sin". remains to be discovered outside the LOA.
"Of Tender Sin" is a dark, brutally shocking novel that tells the story of a person haunted by demons. The major character, Alvin Barby, 29, has a stable job with an insurance company and has been married for six years to a lovely, devoted woman, Vivian. As the book opens, Barby has been unable to have sexual relations with Vivian, hears disquieting noises in the house, and leaps to the conclusion that his wife has been having an affair. He is obsessed with a woman from his adolescent life with platinum blonde hair. He is also haunted by memories of a near-disastrous relationship he had before his marriage with Geraldine, a beautiful but sadistically controlling woman.
Most of the book describes Barby's deterioration and near-destruction following his suspicion of Vivian's unfaithfulness. Barby wanders the tenderloin area of early 1950's Philadelphia. In the process, Goodis describes tormented people and scenes, bars, tenements, cut-rate stores, pawn shops, and flophouses. Barby encounters derelicts, prostitutes, drug users, thieves, and killers. It is a places of devastation that mirrors and virtually captures the state of Barby's mind.
The novel is highly internalized focusing on the mind and emotions of its protagonist. It shows the heavy influence of the Freudian psychology of its day. Goodis is a master at capturing feelings of loneliness and isolation amid the ice and chill of a Philadelphia winter. The writing is both lyrical and tough. The portrayal of tormented individuals and squalid scenes more than compensate for the awkwardness of the plotting.
Following its 1952 publication, the book was reissued in 2001 in this edition from Serpents Tail with an introduction by Adrian Wooton, Chief Executive of Film London. Unfortunately, "Of Tender Sin" currently is out-of-print. The book deserves to be reissued. It is an evocative, lyrical, almost painfully bleak novel with a sense of feeling, passion and a hint of the possibility of resilience and redemption.
Robin Friedman
"It began with a shattered dream." The opening sentence of David Goodis' novel "Of Tender Sin" (1952) introduces a noir story of sin, guilt, jealousy, and rage. The book is one of the pulp paperback originals that Goodis (1937 -- 1967) wrote between 1951 -- 1961 about his native Philadelphia. The Library of America has recognized Goodis' value as a writer by including six of his books in its volumes devoted to the best of American writing. Much of Goodis' work, including "Of Tender Sin". remains to be discovered outside the LOA.
"Of Tender Sin" is a dark, brutally shocking novel that tells the story of a person haunted by demons. The major character, Alvin Barby, 29, has a stable job with an insurance company and has been married for six years to a lovely, devoted woman, Vivian. As the book opens, Barby has been unable to have sexual relations with Vivian, hears disquieting noises in the house, and leaps to the conclusion that his wife has been having an affair. He is obsessed with a woman from his adolescent life with platinum blonde hair. He is also haunted by memories of a near-disastrous relationship he had before his marriage with Geraldine, a beautiful but sadistically controlling woman.
Most of the book describes Barby's deterioration and near-destruction following his suspicion of Vivian's unfaithfulness. Barby wanders the tenderloin area of early 1950's Philadelphia. In the process, Goodis describes tormented people and scenes, bars, tenements, cut-rate stores, pawn shops, and flophouses. Barby encounters derelicts, prostitutes, drug users, thieves, and killers. It is a places of devastation that mirrors and virtually captures the state of Barby's mind.
The novel is highly internalized focusing on the mind and emotions of its protagonist. It shows the heavy influence of the Freudian psychology of its day. Goodis is a master at capturing feelings of loneliness and isolation amid the ice and chill of a Philadelphia winter. The writing is both lyrical and tough. The portrayal of tormented individuals and squalid scenes more than compensate for the awkwardness of the plotting.
Following its 1952 publication, the book was reissued in 2001 in this edition from Serpents Tail with an introduction by Adrian Wooton, Chief Executive of Film London. Unfortunately, "Of Tender Sin" currently is out-of-print. The book deserves to be reissued. It is an evocative, lyrical, almost painfully bleak novel with a sense of feeling, passion and a hint of the possibility of resilience and redemption.
Robin Friedman
March 9, 2021
This is not so much crime-noir as psycho-noir. It is the second Goodis book I've read that featured a protagonist with incestuous overtones towards his sister and also the second Goodis book that also channels Malcom Lowry's Under the Volcano, but these are not the same books, so that makes three, a menage a trois of incest and Lowry-esque out-of-the headness. Need to read more to confirm, but think Goodis had a fixation. The protagonist in this novel seems mental for most of the book and that is never resolved. The novel doesn't really end (resolve), instead it just stops. The protag is basically in the same place as in the beginning. Yes, he may know something about the platinum blonde woman (women). Yes, he may know whom his wife has been calling. But we readers are really in no better place to make a decision on our protagonist's state of mind or fate than we were at the beginning of the novel. The psychological torment continues from beginning end. So, on that criteria, this is a superb psychological noir where the dilemma facing the protagonist never really gets solved. For a book written in 1952? That makes it a solid candidate for the existentialist canon. Oh, and there is also an amazing scene involving a scalping with bare hands! Surely that is a one of a kind!
May 8, 2008
Mondo weirdo story about a guy who obsesses over pale blonde hair. All through the book it's hinted that his sister had hair just that particular shade, and he winds up cheating on his ball-and-chain with a girl who resembles his sister. Whole lotta fetish going on here!
April 19, 2011
So much can be said about the French. And while I'm tempted to write about all of it here, I realize this a book review of an American pulp novel from the 1950's so I will keep myself in check. Why do I bring up the French you may ask? Well, because we can thank those les hommes de bonne for reintroducing us to one of the great authors of American Pulp Fiction. David Goodis was extremely active in the 40's and 50's, churning out his special brand of despair in magazines like Dime Mystery and Terror Tales. Sadly, after America turned its attention away from the world of noir, he was lost in time and almost completely forgotten. Thankfully, French film auteurs like Francois Truffaut and Jean Luc Goddard kept his brilliant work alive in films such as "Shoot the Piano Player" and "Made in U.S.A." Piano Player was essentially my introduction to Goodis and sent me down the rabbit hole in to his prolific body of work.
Of Tender Sin initially caught my attention because of its universal themes. A cheating wife? Check. A husband trapped inside his own mind and going through a complete mental break down resulting in a phase of prostitution and drug abuse? Check. Our main character, Mr. Alvin Darby, is a good enough guy. He has a boring desk job in the financial district of Philadelphia, he eats lunch with his good friend Harry each day and at night, he comes home to his lovely wife Vivian. The couple will typically eat a nice dinner before they retire to their respective twin beds in true 1950's fashion. On this particular night however, something is off. Mr. Darby can't shake the image of a platinum blonde beauty from his mind. Unfortunately, this is not such a good thing as some might think. The image haunts him, slowly driving him mad. Vivian, a stunning brunette, suddenly has platinum blonde hair herself and Darby can't figure out what is wrong with him. Vivian can sense something is off and after a brief argument and a secret phone call, we see the full collapse of Alvin Darby.
I've read my fair share of pulp novels and while it's easily one of my favorite genres, I tend to complain that some works are simply too sterilized for my taste. It's 2011 and things were much different in the 1940s and 50's. Watch a John Wayne film and you'll know what I'm talking about. With that being said, there are several authors that get it so right, it would make most prison inmates feel uncomfortable. David Goodis is one of those authors. While reading this book, you can almost see the dark cloud hanging over Mr. Darby. We are taken on a twisted ride through adultery, street life and even incest as we try to figure out just what is going on with this guy. At the same time, Goodis allows us to connect with him in a way that makes you feel oddly empathetic. We may have not been in the same situations as Mr. Darby, but we've all suffered through similar emotions. That is the beauty of Goodis. He is able to tap in to the darkest human conditions and make you feel the way the characters do. Meanwhile, the dialogue is outstanding and images of an ugly city come right off the page.
Clearly, not everyone wants to feel manic depressive while doing some light reading, so keep that in mind should you choose to pick up this book. However, for the person who loves seeing others in their most desperate state and also enjoys things like rainy days and the color black, then this is for you!
*Highly recommended. Goodis has quickly become one of my favorite authors and a must read for anyone interesting in Film Noir, Pulp Fiction, French New Wave and/or dark American literature.
-JRS
Of Tender Sin initially caught my attention because of its universal themes. A cheating wife? Check. A husband trapped inside his own mind and going through a complete mental break down resulting in a phase of prostitution and drug abuse? Check. Our main character, Mr. Alvin Darby, is a good enough guy. He has a boring desk job in the financial district of Philadelphia, he eats lunch with his good friend Harry each day and at night, he comes home to his lovely wife Vivian. The couple will typically eat a nice dinner before they retire to their respective twin beds in true 1950's fashion. On this particular night however, something is off. Mr. Darby can't shake the image of a platinum blonde beauty from his mind. Unfortunately, this is not such a good thing as some might think. The image haunts him, slowly driving him mad. Vivian, a stunning brunette, suddenly has platinum blonde hair herself and Darby can't figure out what is wrong with him. Vivian can sense something is off and after a brief argument and a secret phone call, we see the full collapse of Alvin Darby.
I've read my fair share of pulp novels and while it's easily one of my favorite genres, I tend to complain that some works are simply too sterilized for my taste. It's 2011 and things were much different in the 1940s and 50's. Watch a John Wayne film and you'll know what I'm talking about. With that being said, there are several authors that get it so right, it would make most prison inmates feel uncomfortable. David Goodis is one of those authors. While reading this book, you can almost see the dark cloud hanging over Mr. Darby. We are taken on a twisted ride through adultery, street life and even incest as we try to figure out just what is going on with this guy. At the same time, Goodis allows us to connect with him in a way that makes you feel oddly empathetic. We may have not been in the same situations as Mr. Darby, but we've all suffered through similar emotions. That is the beauty of Goodis. He is able to tap in to the darkest human conditions and make you feel the way the characters do. Meanwhile, the dialogue is outstanding and images of an ugly city come right off the page.
Clearly, not everyone wants to feel manic depressive while doing some light reading, so keep that in mind should you choose to pick up this book. However, for the person who loves seeing others in their most desperate state and also enjoys things like rainy days and the color black, then this is for you!
*Highly recommended. Goodis has quickly become one of my favorite authors and a must read for anyone interesting in Film Noir, Pulp Fiction, French New Wave and/or dark American literature.
-JRS
October 28, 2013
Of Tender Sin (1952)
This may be the best David Goodis novel I’ve read. I read it in the Paper Back Original form, which is how I like to read these. The cover is a typical Gold Medal Original cover painting, with a ripe looking blonde, breasts spilling out, legs suggestively open, spread over a cheap looking couch. It takes place in urban Philadelphia, with good chunks of it taking place in skid row flop houses and cheap apartments. Alvin Darby is a typically troubled Goodis hero. He works as an actuary in a large life insurance company. He has a beautiful wife named Vivian but he can’t get it up with her, and he is obsessed by dreams of a platinum blonde woman who turns out to remind him of his slightly older sister Marjorie with whom he certainly was physically obsessed with when he was fifteen, and they probably had sex. His search for platinum blonde women draws him to Skid Row and an ex-girlfriend who is addicted to cocaine and who is probably a hooker. He also is obsessed with a man from his past whom he suspects of having an affair with Vivian. He is so obsessed that he steals a knife planning on killing the guy, and is seen and blackmailed by a couple of thugs. There is a wild scene involving the two blackmailers and the suspected cuckholder.
So there’s drugs and violence and sex, but this reads less like a typical pulp novel than it does Dostoyevsky’s Notes From Underground. There are a lot of nightmare scenes and nightmarish scenes and an unconvincingly hopeful denouement. I imagine most readers were disappointed, but there is much to admire here. The "Tender" in the title, linked with the lascivious cover painting, suggests a titillating, heavy breathing soft-core paperback, but the novel is sensitive and "tender" in the most flattering meaning of the word. Highly recommended.
This may be the best David Goodis novel I’ve read. I read it in the Paper Back Original form, which is how I like to read these. The cover is a typical Gold Medal Original cover painting, with a ripe looking blonde, breasts spilling out, legs suggestively open, spread over a cheap looking couch. It takes place in urban Philadelphia, with good chunks of it taking place in skid row flop houses and cheap apartments. Alvin Darby is a typically troubled Goodis hero. He works as an actuary in a large life insurance company. He has a beautiful wife named Vivian but he can’t get it up with her, and he is obsessed by dreams of a platinum blonde woman who turns out to remind him of his slightly older sister Marjorie with whom he certainly was physically obsessed with when he was fifteen, and they probably had sex. His search for platinum blonde women draws him to Skid Row and an ex-girlfriend who is addicted to cocaine and who is probably a hooker. He also is obsessed with a man from his past whom he suspects of having an affair with Vivian. He is so obsessed that he steals a knife planning on killing the guy, and is seen and blackmailed by a couple of thugs. There is a wild scene involving the two blackmailers and the suspected cuckholder.
So there’s drugs and violence and sex, but this reads less like a typical pulp novel than it does Dostoyevsky’s Notes From Underground. There are a lot of nightmare scenes and nightmarish scenes and an unconvincingly hopeful denouement. I imagine most readers were disappointed, but there is much to admire here. The "Tender" in the title, linked with the lascivious cover painting, suggests a titillating, heavy breathing soft-core paperback, but the novel is sensitive and "tender" in the most flattering meaning of the word. Highly recommended.
June 22, 2015
I am a big Goodis fan. He's not on my Mt Rushmore of hard-boiled/noir writers, but solidly in the second tier. I thought I had read them all, so I was thrilled when I found Of Tender Sin. I must say this is my favorite Goodis novel. This is one I will read again.
September 24, 2022
I'm a big Goodis fan and wrote everything he wrote which wasn't enough so i am now re-reading them. This is a little bit different in style and has some of his best prose. Darby isn't a drug user but his hidden guilt is starting to make him lose touch with reality. I grew up Philadelphia as did Goodis and where most of his stories take place. Although I was born 30 years after Goodis in 1947 I still recognize the neighborhoods he describes. I grew up in a housing project at 31st and Morris and went to work in a telephone company building at 9th and Race in 1969 which is where much of the action takes place. Things involved a little in that area by then and some of it may have been the completion of the police headquarters "The Roundhouse") at 8th and Race in 1963. but I still remember meeting people on the way into work asking for a handout. The novel really took off for me in chapter 13 when Darby met Woodrow. The conversation reminded me of the language I had heard in my racially mixed neighborhood growing up although the Goodis version was much more poetic. There was a heartfelt exchange that had a little bit of a "call and response" feel to hit when the two men were discussing life in front of the laundry window.
"Shirts get dirty," he said, as though he had just discovered the fact. "A man likes to wear a clean shirt."
"True, man. Quite true."
"Wash the shirts. Iron the shirts. Make money." "Talk, man. Talk more like that."
"Work all night. Stay inside. Out of the cold."
"And then go home," the colored man said. "Tell me about that."
Darby nodded. "Home. All tired out. Look at the bed and get the good feeling. Go to sleep."
"No, not yet," the colored man said. "Stay with the good feeling. Let me hear about that."
"Hot in the room. The radiator makes a noise. Zing, zing, the steam. Outside, the wind, the snow. Cold out there. But in here in the room, nice and hot. With the lights out. And the husband there--"
"Now let me take it," the colored man said, with his eyes going through the plate-glass window and gently patting the soft arm of a little brown-skinned girl who was marking shirts. "The husband there in the bed in the room with the lights out. Well, girl, put the lamp on. The little lamp with the orange bulb. You, Woodrow. Hey, Woodrow, wake up, man. Sit up. Look at her. Here she is. Come home from work. To you. Next room, all the kids. Five, six, seven kids. Think of that. Yours and hers. Woodrow and Clotile."
"Your name Woodrow?" The colored man nodded.
"I'm Alvin."
"Shirts get dirty," he said, as though he had just discovered the fact. "A man likes to wear a clean shirt."
"True, man. Quite true."
"Wash the shirts. Iron the shirts. Make money." "Talk, man. Talk more like that."
"Work all night. Stay inside. Out of the cold."
"And then go home," the colored man said. "Tell me about that."
Darby nodded. "Home. All tired out. Look at the bed and get the good feeling. Go to sleep."
"No, not yet," the colored man said. "Stay with the good feeling. Let me hear about that."
"Hot in the room. The radiator makes a noise. Zing, zing, the steam. Outside, the wind, the snow. Cold out there. But in here in the room, nice and hot. With the lights out. And the husband there--"
"Now let me take it," the colored man said, with his eyes going through the plate-glass window and gently patting the soft arm of a little brown-skinned girl who was marking shirts. "The husband there in the bed in the room with the lights out. Well, girl, put the lamp on. The little lamp with the orange bulb. You, Woodrow. Hey, Woodrow, wake up, man. Sit up. Look at her. Here she is. Come home from work. To you. Next room, all the kids. Five, six, seven kids. Think of that. Yours and hers. Woodrow and Clotile."
"Your name Woodrow?" The colored man nodded.
"I'm Alvin."
October 30, 2019
A Philadelphia insurance agent begins to lose touch with reality, threatening his job, his marriage, and soon his life.
Mystery Review: Of Tender Sin isn't a mystery about crime, at least not at first. Here the mystery is about what is causing Al Darby's visions, transforming them into an obsession that tears his life apart. (n.b., "Darby" is also a township in Delaware County adjacent to Philadelphia.) My second novel by David Goodis, this is worlds apart from the chaste struggle against fate that was Dark Passage (1946). More sensual (almost erotic), than the former novel, but all in service to the plot, which takes it to the edge. Goodis does not fall into the typical "madonna or whore" cliche, instead each female character is a lot of one and a bit of the other, making the roles more credible. Of Tender Sin is a psychological mystery, consisting of one man's struggle with repressed memories and taboo passions. These pressures lead our protagonist to go for "a walk on the wild side" in the seamy districts of Philadelphia. Goodis paints Philly street by street as carefully as Joyce did Dublin. Wherever the plot might momentarily unravel, Goodis quickly saves it with his stunning skills -- he can write suspense with the best of them. A quick entertaining read with just enough grimy verisimilitude to make it a genuine noir novel, Of Tender Sin is an odd book out, but no less enjoyable for that. [3½★]
Mystery Review: Of Tender Sin isn't a mystery about crime, at least not at first. Here the mystery is about what is causing Al Darby's visions, transforming them into an obsession that tears his life apart. (n.b., "Darby" is also a township in Delaware County adjacent to Philadelphia.) My second novel by David Goodis, this is worlds apart from the chaste struggle against fate that was Dark Passage (1946). More sensual (almost erotic), than the former novel, but all in service to the plot, which takes it to the edge. Goodis does not fall into the typical "madonna or whore" cliche, instead each female character is a lot of one and a bit of the other, making the roles more credible. Of Tender Sin is a psychological mystery, consisting of one man's struggle with repressed memories and taboo passions. These pressures lead our protagonist to go for "a walk on the wild side" in the seamy districts of Philadelphia. Goodis paints Philly street by street as carefully as Joyce did Dublin. Wherever the plot might momentarily unravel, Goodis quickly saves it with his stunning skills -- he can write suspense with the best of them. A quick entertaining read with just enough grimy verisimilitude to make it a genuine noir novel, Of Tender Sin is an odd book out, but no less enjoyable for that. [3½★]
November 13, 2025
I think this may be the last David Goodis novel I had not read, but oh man what a treat this wild and fucked up fever dream truly is. With Goodis, you clearly see why so many surrealists (think David Lynch) are attracted to the old 20th century noir novelists. But the thing is -- I don't think you could call OF TENDER SIN a noir novel. It is a David Goodis novel, which is its own deranged and poetic genre. I had the same excitement savoring Goodis's clipped yet robust prose as I did with William S. Buroughs at his best. Whether Alvin Darby, the 29-year-old sad sack actuary in Philly who is at the heart of this, is mad or not is anyone's guess. He hallucinates that his wife's hair color has changed and sees this as a symbol that she's seeing some fellow on the side. What follows, aside from Goodis's constant preoccupation with male anxiety and the Rubenesque women who stomp these losers hemmed into paranoia because of thwarted masculinity, is an utterly wild ride into the gutter with gritty druggies and seedy characters. Goodis seems to be saying something that is both hilarious and disturbing about the depths of male anxiety, which can be seen today in incels and the unhinged messages that dude bombard women with today on dating apps. Paranoia will erode your very identity and the boredom of everyday life is a highly effective handmaiden. Really, this is one of David Goodis' best. Strongly recommended, although you have to be a weirdo type like me who gets this sort of thing.
December 28, 2012
Whoa! Goodis keeps to his usual storyline of a 'normal' person losing their sanity and letting demons of the past resurface and bring them down to wallow in their own guilt and filth. But what makes this one a bit different is how sexually twisted it becomes in the last quarter of the book; an unspeakable act that probably didn't sit well with readers back when it was first published. Told in his usual off-beat manner, where the edges of darkness are painted with absurdist action and existential angst, we meet Darby, a regular white-collar man in the suburbs with a good wife, who isn't a plain jane, but stacked with swelling, man-crushing curves (a typical Goodis staple). Problem is Darby can't get it up, and when he does try to, he watches his brunette wife morph into a platinum blonde. Is it a hallucination? A double-cross in the making? Darby's fetish for the platinum blonde brings him to the 'Tenderloin', the slum of the Philadelphia, which many of his novels use as a locale. Here, Darby meets heart-warming winos, knife-wielding scumbags, drug-addicted prostitutes, and soon finds himself in a flophouse with a bunch of junkies who show him a 'way out'. And after this awakening, Darby's memories resurface, and he has two choices: deal with the past, or let it drag him down to the gutter.
Goodis is not in top form here, however, it's an entertaining romp into 'fetish' and 'murder'. If you haven't read the Philadelphian Kafka, then start with his trio of 5-star classics, 'Down There', 'The Burgular', or 'Street of No Return'.
Goodis is not in top form here, however, it's an entertaining romp into 'fetish' and 'murder'. If you haven't read the Philadelphian Kafka, then start with his trio of 5-star classics, 'Down There', 'The Burgular', or 'Street of No Return'.
November 22, 2011
a big disappointment.
as a native philadelphian, i thought this would shed some light on what the dark depths of my city looked like in the late 40's. i guess it does do this occasionally (who knew that K and A used to be safer than 8th and race?), but not enough to override the cartoonish melodrama of nearly everything else in its pages.
i'm sure in 1950 the novel's themes of incest and drug abuse were very controversial, but there are plenty of other writers of the time who explored them with far greater complexity. the story is superficially similar to the "hard novels" of georges simenon - normal bourgeois man abandons his life of comfort to descend into urban underbelly, etc. unlike simenon, the existential dread that propels the descent is never enigmatic or elusive. instead, it's explained away in the broadest freudian therapy-speak imaginable, with a goofy horror-of-drugs message tacked on at times like a nancy reagan tv testimonial. worse still, the mystery at its core is easily decoded, and populated by laughable stereotypes at each hard-boiled corner. when the blond-haired femme fatale makes her inevitable appearance, the book transforms into full-blown camp - unraveling any semblance of a serious narrative with a few pages of uninspired s & m. were it a movie, it might make for bizarro, midnight-movie viewing a la edgar ulmer, but as a book i found it ugly and idiotic.
as a native philadelphian, i thought this would shed some light on what the dark depths of my city looked like in the late 40's. i guess it does do this occasionally (who knew that K and A used to be safer than 8th and race?), but not enough to override the cartoonish melodrama of nearly everything else in its pages.
i'm sure in 1950 the novel's themes of incest and drug abuse were very controversial, but there are plenty of other writers of the time who explored them with far greater complexity. the story is superficially similar to the "hard novels" of georges simenon - normal bourgeois man abandons his life of comfort to descend into urban underbelly, etc. unlike simenon, the existential dread that propels the descent is never enigmatic or elusive. instead, it's explained away in the broadest freudian therapy-speak imaginable, with a goofy horror-of-drugs message tacked on at times like a nancy reagan tv testimonial. worse still, the mystery at its core is easily decoded, and populated by laughable stereotypes at each hard-boiled corner. when the blond-haired femme fatale makes her inevitable appearance, the book transforms into full-blown camp - unraveling any semblance of a serious narrative with a few pages of uninspired s & m. were it a movie, it might make for bizarro, midnight-movie viewing a la edgar ulmer, but as a book i found it ugly and idiotic.
May 20, 2009
i just finished this, my second goodis book and damn, i am a fan. totaly wrapped up in it. again, dysfunctional person. i think what he is really keen on, at least in this one and the blonde on the street corner, is watching the slow decline of the protagonist. from what i know of the film shoot the piano player, we come to the main protag already at his declined state. but his characters seem to not try too hard to get out of such state. that might sound boring to some, but his prose and style of writing will hook you. for sure.
May 25, 2011
My first Goodis book, he writes in a similar mode as Cornell Woolrich--namely, the sudden drop into hell. Honestly, he is probably a little more literary, having a better command of poetic prose than Woolrich, but maybe not as goood at storytelling.
December 7, 2007
There are far more famous Goodis books--and I notice that the average rating for this is not great--but for me this is his most haunting book.
January 26, 2009
READ MORE GOODIS
August 6, 2010
"Book Noir." Weird, haunting,suffocating, sad...strange as a dreamscape and almost as inescapable. Maybe not the best Goodis, but mandatory for his fans.
February 14, 2015
Reading this one again. Nobody does it like Goodis.
August 24, 2016
The finale was a bit too pre-packaged and Freudian to quite seem believable.
April 12, 2010
All Goodis should be read, but the bathos level of this one was slightly below his waterline.
September 11, 2014
Not his best, but interesting.
May 9, 2017
weird, genre-defying book that won't be for everyone. Well, then again David Goodis never is.
If you're a fan of the author then I recommend it.
If you've come across his name due to interest in the hard-boiled genre then I'd say there are other, better books to start with.
Weird but almost wonderful
If you're a fan of the author then I recommend it.
If you've come across his name due to interest in the hard-boiled genre then I'd say there are other, better books to start with.
Weird but almost wonderful
August 29, 2019
Quick read about a middle class guy's descent into the dark mean streets of Philadelphia and the forbidden inner recesses of his mind.
September 12, 2019
Lame ending (the last 2 pages) ruined an otherwise fascinating book.
October 9, 2021
There is an underlying disturbing menace running through the plot of this book..
July 1, 2022
Don't know how to feel about this one....
December 19, 2024
Incestowi mówię stanowcze NIE.
November 29, 2021
This is my twelfth Goodis novel and while much of this is like his other work, it's rather more freaky and dreamlike that usual. I found myself increasingly taken in by the crazed thrashings of the protagonist Alvin, so much so that by the end I was transfixed. This is a messed up rollercoaster ride of a book, and I loved it.
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