Algernon’s Comments (group member since Aug 10, 2012)

Algernon’s comments from the Pulp Fiction group.

A pleasant surprise for me was The Passionate Friends 1949, by David Lean, the romantic perfectionist who arranges every frame with the patience of a painter. The story is another doomed love affair, after the better known 'Brief Encounter', but the restored black & white print is incredible to a photographer like me. The location shots in Annecy and in the high Alps announce Lean's later epics like 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Dr Zhivago.'
The lead actress, Ann Todd, would become the director's third wife, which might explain his fascination with close ups of her exquisite face. Trevor Howard is a bit long in the tooth for the romantic lead, but Claude Rains steals the show in every scene

I noticed that Camino Island by John Grisham mentions 'trouble in paradise' on the blurb. It could be a contender.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Algernon wrote: "I have completely lost track of how we chose our monthly reads. We are in April still, and the book for June is already selected?..."

Actually, no. The book for May, not June, has..."

thanks for clearing up my misunderstanding. I thought Paradise Gone Wrong is the book's title.

I haven't checked which books we had previously chosen in our monthly reads, but we can consider:

Robert B Parker - Trouble In Paradise
Charles Williams - Aground
Don Winslow - Savages
Tim Dorsey - Florida Roadkill
Alex Garland - The Beach
David Dodge - To Catch a Thief
Carl Hiaasen - Tourist Season or Bad Monkey
Gil Brewer - 77 Rue Paradis

I don't know how I will be able to finish the books I have lined up for April, they will probably spill over into May, but the book does sound tempting

I have completely lost track of how we chose our monthly reads. We are in April still, and the book for June is already selected?

What Nathanael West and Herlihy have in common is the big city presence or pressure . Same as Nelson Algren or Gerald Kersh. So we could name the theme Big City Blues, or chose a particular city, like Chicago or London as the focus.

I've been toying with an idea of something like 'Recipe for Murder' where the plot or the detective engage in cooking, Like The Bruno, Chief of Police or The Shape of Water with Inspector Montalbano. But I need more suggestions in order to round up four or five candidates.

Another old idea is a theatrical / cinema theme. We could call it 'Backstage Stabbings'. I have some potential titles chosen:

Silvia Moreno Garcia – Silver Nitrate
Barbara Hambly – Scandal in Babylon
Chris Brookmyre – The Cut
Erle Stanley Gardner – The Bigger They Come
Newton Thornburg – Dreamland
Leigh Brackett – No Good from a Corpse
Agatha Christie – The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

According to wikipedia, there are five adaptations of the novel, with a sixth in development in Hollywood. I would like to watch one, but it is difficult to decide which one is better or which one is available in my country. I think I would prefer the Japanese instead of the Chinese version, from 2008

I finished the book a couple of days ago, but forgot to post here.

To all those questions I believe there is a single answer: this is a morality play, in particular a Japanese morality code that informs all the character decisions: a wife's duty to her husband, even when he is a violent abuser; a student's duty to his aging parents, giving up a career to care for them, a policeman's duty to uphold the law, regardless of friendship or personal opinions and so on ...
Depression, suicidal thoughts, inflexibility I think are also traits particular to this culture.

The puzzle is very clever, and the mathematical references well integrated into the story, but for me it was the character study that counted.

I've read Serenade back in 2012 and wasn't really keen on it. I liked the writing but not the muddled plot and especially not the main narrator - racist and abusive with the girl.
Still, it is a short book with some interesting details about the life of a musician and some atmospheric passages. 3.5 stars mostly because it is by Cain, who has better books in his catalogue

I missed the end of the month by a couple of days, but I am still glad I picked the book. This is not my first by Fredric Brown: I read both his science-fiction and his horror, but I didn't expect to be hit so hard by the story. I went through a similar experience as Ed at eighteen, with my father here one day and gone tomorrow (aneurysm not murder) so I kinda took the coming of age story personally.
The crime story isn't so bad either, just a little pulpy. I liked the portrait of the city and the carney slang in particular, so I think I want to read the second book in the series soon.

I plan to join the discussion, but right now I still try to fit this month's book onto my crowded plate

There are a lot of things to like in the story, and a lot of things to get angry about in the racial relations. I'm not familiar with fry pies, but I liked the sense of place and the references to blues music.
I was not so keen on Darren Mathews: he's got enough layers to justify his role as main narrator, but he also feels like a made-for-TV, by-the-numbers stock character. I found Geneva Sweet much more interesting.

Now I want to see if I can play catch up with the March book, since I'm already a fan of Fredric Brown

I managed to watch season 1 of Justified , a series I heard about right here in this topic. It was good, I might continue with it.
For my classic noir fix, I picked Where the Sidewalk Ends from 1950, with Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. It was good, filmed mostly in night scenes, but I thought Andrews was a little rigid in his role, not entirely convincing.

I also liked the Sugar Man documentary a few years back, and put the music of Sixto Rodrigues on my car's library for long drives

February was a short month, and I couldn't fit it into a busy schedule, but I got my copy and hope to read the book soon.

I finally managed to watch 'Deadline at Dawn' [1946] , a few years after reading the source novel. It's a decent adaptation, with good choices for the lead actors in Susan Hayward and Bill Williams, good light in the night scenes for the period, but also some clumsy acting and strained dialogue that doesn't quite capture the anguish, the beauty of Woolrich's writing. Still, this is probably the most romantic story in his bleak catalogue

I watched a couple of early Marylin Monroe noir movies: 'Don't Bother to Knock' a psychological thriller from 1952 in B & W, and 'Niagara' from 1953 in vivid color. The real tragedy is how Hollywood insisted on the sex symbol image when she could be a much better actress than she is given credit for.

I finished watching the streaming series The Lowdown with Ethan Hawke and Kyle McLachlan. It should work great for pulp lovers with an Oklahoma setting, a criminal investigation with ramifications into politics, family issues and Native American history.
There are extensive references to the novels of Jim Thompson and you can find Lou Berney and Walter Mosley in the credits for the writing

I liked it to, especially the portrait of Arthur Simpson and his narrative voice, self-deprecating and cynical, a coward who turns terribly clever when he has no other choice.
It's also good to remark on the way Ambler manages the tension in the book: first with the Athens pathetic misadventure and the flashbacks that establish the lead narrator, then with the puzzle of the car and of the plot, kept at boiling point by the two big sharks threatening to swallow Arthur whole: the big time crooks at the villa and the secret service officer and, finally, the actual heist and the switch at the end. A master class in writing a good thriller.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Algernon wrote: "Watched 'Sinners' and I think it qualifies as a pulp movie in the Southern Gothic subgenre. Loved the music, being a blues listener ever since the John Lee Hooker revival back in t..."

It has very high production values and a good director. The first half is the setup in a small town in the Mississippi Delta in 1930s and some very good blues songs thrown in.
The second half is more commercial and horror oriented, but still very well set up, in my opinion.
I hope the movie will be recognized at the Oscars

Watched 'Sinners' and I think it qualifies as a pulp movie in the Southern Gothic subgenre. Loved the music, being a blues listener ever since the John Lee Hooker revival back in the 1990s'

when I saw the title, for some reason I thought of Joshua Abraham Norton , sometimes called The Emperor of San Francisco. I think I read about him in a Christopher Moore novel.