Violent Saturday

by W. L. Heath

Three men come to a small Southern town to rob its bank and become involved in the lives of some of the town's citizens

Genres: Crime, Noir, Fiction

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Violent Saturday” is a brilliant short novel that offers us three days in the life of a small Southern town in the mid-1950’s. Three strangers come to town, prepared to rob the local bank. Although all the action (and its mad furious action) takes place in the final quarter of the novel, the mastery of the writing form is evident throughout as Heath develops a dozen characters, including the three outlaws and the townsfolk, through brief descriptions and conversation. Well done, indeed.

[Heath Lowrance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one that had been sitting on my shelf for a long, long time, ignored. Having finally read it, I really wish I'd gotten to it sooner. It's pretty terrific. I'd call it another one of those "lost noir gems", but it's not really a noir in the strictest sense. In fact, it's not really even a "crime" novel. What it is is something quite unique.

Three strangers arrive by train in the small Alabama town of Morgan, casing the place in preparation for a bank robbery. They are witnessed arriving by a handful of Morgan's citizens. While the robbers bicker and plan the heist in the heat of their hotel room, author W.L. Heath takes us through that Friday evening and Saturday morning and afternoon before the robbery with each of the central characters-- an upper-middle class couple struggling with issues of marital fidelity, another couple struggling to get by, an alcoholic hotel porter, a bitter old woman from a once prominent family, now fallen on hard times, a bank manager driven to the brink of ruin by his long-distance lust for a young nurse. The entire first half of VIOLENT SATURDAY is taken up with their lives and obsessions, none of them knowing, of course, that they will all play a role in the botched bank robbery that looms ahead.

There's lots of dialogue in this book, all expertly done-- in fact, it's really the dialogue that drives everything forward. Even the action of the bank robbery, when it happens, is told second-hand via dialogue. That's something that normally might have bothered me, but it works tremendously well here.

A brief caveat: be warned that the use of the Dreaded "N"-word runs rampant throughout this book. Yes, the book was written in 1955, and it DOES take place in the Alabama of that time, and W.L. Heath portrays the men and women of his story in a very stark and realistic light. To his credit, he doesn't judge them; he just shows them to us. In fact, there's an interesting and revealing conversation at one point between two of the characters about their attitudes toward "colored folks"-- I like them, one character reveals, as long as they know their place and don't get high-minded ideas. Jews, on the other hand...

So that's the reality of Alabama (hell, MOST of America, really) in the mid-50's. It adds an interesting dynamic to an already seductive and expertly told novel.

[Ronald Koltnow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sherwood Anderson wanted the title of WINESBURG, OHIO to be THE BOOK OF THE GROTESQUE. Small-town life, thought Anderson, is full of lives of quiet torment, grotesquerie, if you will. Ed[ward] Gorman evokes Anderson in his intro to W. L. Heath's VIOLENT SATURDAY; Anderson is even mentioned in the book (The suddenness of his death). This slim novel deals with violence in a small town, the effect it has on the people who are dealing with their private torments. The spirit of WWII and Korea hangs over the action. How would people who lived through years of killing react when it hits close to home? Considered a noir novel, this is more a study of a society that hides itself from its own weaknesses. The crime is just the catalyst. Warning: the racial attitudes of the characters are far from enlightened -- N words abound, Jews are criticized, Catholics questioned, yet the Chinese, although infantilized, come off okay.

[Stephen J. Golds · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best pulp noirs I’ve read in a long time.

A quiet, sleepy town, inhabited by old folks, spoilt upper classes and gossips turns into a bloodbath when a bank robbery goes wrong on a rainy Saturday.
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
It is.
Great writing, great plot, great characters

5/5 highly recommended

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting crime book, about a trio of bank robbers who come to a small town. Their crime ultimately is the turning point in the lives of many town folks, one way or another (including fatally). The title is somewhat misleading, not because there is no violence but because the violence itself is actually quite a minor part of the story (the bank robbery is only narrated retrospectively by witnesses, rather than being the climactic set piece one might expect, for instance). There's some experimental use of first person narration as the text goes inside the minds of several characters to show us how they see the world. However, some of the characters never really seem to integrate into the main action, and there's an odd digression into a discussion of race that seems to fit awkwardly--it feels almost like a sort of guilty acknowledgement that race is a problematic subject in the book, as the book generally casually accepts less than progressive views on the subject. Interesting, to be sure, but not a classic.

[Thrillers R Us · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disputed and contested info in the internet-age and par for the course for net-ragers, the University of Alabama has won a good number of National championships since organized football began in 1892 and holds a few NCAA records for Bowl participation. Noticeably, 1907 was not a trophy studded year, though that season carries importance in its own way. In specific, the game at the Birmingham Fairgrounds on November 16 in THE LAST BOYSCOUT style rainy conditions versus arch rivals Auburn that ended in a tie. It also ended with Bama's white shirts fully stained by the muddy red clay dirt, causing Hugh Roberts of the local Birmingham newsrag to hail Alabama as playing like a 'Crimson Tide'. Rolling in heavy for a VIOLENT SATURDAY, three bad hombres arrive on a train from Memphis, and with them they brought trouble. Plunking down in Morgan, Alabama, they plan to go straight to the withdrawal from a cash-stacked local bank branch, and it won't be red clay stuck to garments after the Wrath of God has been unleashed upon this small town in 1950s America.

The spectacular title promising bloodshed and action aside, VIOLENT SATURDAY is all about the mighty metropolis of Morgan, Alabama, a regular small town Americana with the daily paper full of car wrecks and commies and the high cost of living. In addition to a confederate monument and watermelons piled up like cannon balls in the market square, Morgan is a municipality that's quaint and shady, a pleasant place to live for the 4,700 people for whom Friday night means a welcome departure from the routine of weekday life. However, there are some crazy characters around Morgan, it is the hottest hole in the forty-eight; the heat's oppressive and can make people do strange things. Nonetheless, VIOLENT SATURDAY is more about the city, its people and how they are affected by the violence and the tear in the social fabric when three hoodlums take a hankering to the cash in the local bank. It turns a mighty bad afternoon into real messy business.

A small town soap opera with a major crime mixed in, VIOLENT SATURDAY manages to touch on issues not very common for the happy days of the '50s, people dealing with mortality as well as veterans affected by war-nerves, before it was called PTSD. Infinitely interesting and a looking-glass into the past (there's a LOT of smoking going on!), VIOLENT SATURDAY states that a white popping bug is a hard fishing lure to beat, that too much wife and too much money can ruin you, an imbecile is just a step ahead of an idiot, that minding your own business is a good habit to get into and everybody dies alone. It's indeed not all lugubrious, there are light moments and phrases the likes of 'horse opera', 'bruise it', and 'money is everything'. In fact, the often heated and combative dialogue between the three hoods is most hilarious and entertaining, the star of the book, really. If you wanna live dangerously, mark your calendar and feast your eyes on VIOLENT SATURDAY--it's an unedifying spectacle.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting little read. I then bought the DVD so I could see what Hollywood did with it and it sounded like it would make an good film noir and had a outstanding cast. The film was just so-so; the novel was much better as is usually the case. The film was disappointing, you had Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine (as an Amish Farmer!), and the fame of a thousand Film Noirs, Victor Mature as the protagonist. A good slice of life crime caper with a Winnesburg, Ohio like bent. A tidy little crime novel.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violent Saturday builds suspense for about three-quarters of the book and then the denouement is a bit anticlimactic, but the book works, not so much as a crime novel, but as Southern gothic in the vein of Flannery O'Conner or Erskine Caldwell.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very tight thriller. Amazing writing. Set aside 6 hours for yourself and read this book!!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Length: 124 pages. Title: VIOLENT SATURDAY. Given this pair of facts, I was surprised by the relatively leisurely pacing of this novel. The book is set in the small town of Morgan, Alabama, where three strangers from Memphis arrive to rob the local bank. The first half of the book (and then some) consists of character portraits as we get to know the three robbers and the locals who will somehow be affected by their crime. And this is what provides Violent Saturday with much of its drama: As we are meeting our cast of Alabamians, the unstated question hanging over all of their heads is, How will they be involved in Saturday's violence? And just how violent does a Saturday have to be to earn the name "Violent Saturday," anyway? The gimmick is sort of like The Bridge of San Luis Rey, but the drama is greater. If you're on the bridge, then you're on the bridge--only one fate can await you. But if you're in the bank on Violent Saturday, there is a wider range of possibilities.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! "Violent Saturday" is a very unusual novel. Heath depicts a small town and a few of its residents in great detail and with great skill--think Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio"--but then adds a noirish plot worthy of Jim Thompson. And these two aspects of the story are blended seamlessly. I think the book deserves to be much more well known--only 57 ratings on this site! One caveat: written in the mid-1950s, many of the book's characters express racist sentiments--the N-word appears quite often--and there is some misogyny, but, for me, it is a case of Heath telling it like it was at the time.

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most compelling little book that grips one and doesn't let go.
The atmosphere of small town life in 1950's Alabama stays in the mind long after reading.

The story is basically about a group of shady outsiders meeting in a small town with a bank robbery on their list of plans.

The film version of the book was okay, but if my memory is correct, reset the story in Arizona or some where like that. The movie was good, the book better.

[Thom Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey ! I read the book and saw the movie both when I was no more than 15. (I'm 68). You have it published in 1985, Nineteen EIGHTY five. It feels weird: I remember holding that cheap paperback in my hand and trying to square it with the film.....Thelma Ritter was in it ?? Tommy Noonan ?? And wasn't there some involvement with the distinctly NON-violent Amish ? Who is it can inform me truly ?

[Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sunny little slice of life, noir. Kind of a neorealist structure, as we learn backstory and context for these townspeople for 90% of the book, then get thrust into pretty well composed action finale for the final 10. Unexpectedly thoughtful if a bit dated in terms of it's social opinions. I like this era of Black Lizard Press covers and spines, and will probably try and collect some more.