Pulp Fiction discussion

Scary Thriller Month is here! And who better to celebrate it with than one of the all-time great noir suspense writers. Cornell Woolrich?

Woolrich was born in New York City, where he lived most of his life. He attended Columbia University, but left without earning his degree when his first novel, Cover Charge, was published. Cover Charge, like most of the five novels that followed, was considered to be a "Jazz Age novel" inspired by the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. These novels led Woolrich to a dalliance with Hollywood screenwriting (he never earned any screen credits, however) where he explored his sexuality with, as his biographer says, "promiscuous and clandestine homosexual activity." His marriage to a daughter of one of the founders of the Vitagraph Studio was later annulled, unconsummated.

When his seventh Jazz Age novel was rejected, Woolrich threw the manuscript away and reinvented himself as a noir/crime writer. His first noir novel - this month's Group Read Selection: The Bride Wore Black - began a prolific and successful period from 1940 until 1952 in which Woolrich published his most successful novels and stories, sometimes using the names William Irish or George Hopley.

Many of Woolrich's works would be filmed - often memorably, by noted directors such as Hitchcock and Truffaut - in the years leading up to his death in 1968 and beyond.

Wikipedia (as usual, the primary source for this post) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell...

Time Magazine article (excellent but beware of spoilers for Bride and other Woolrich novels) - https://time.com/archive/6912296/that...

Contingent Magazine article - https://contingentmagazine.org/2022/0...

Let's keep the discussion Spoiler-Free until at least October 12th.

Incredible choice. Couldn’t be more excited!

I saw the movie by Francois Truffaut before reading the novel. I love just about everything Truffaut did, and Jeanne Moreau is great in this role, but it's probably best to read Woolrich first: he is a true master of suspense and of tormented souls

I'm about a third of the way into this book and am thoroughly enjoying it!

Thanks to the Truffaut film this is probably the best known of Woolrich's Black series, though my own favorite is The Black Angel. As in his other novels, Woolrich builds the suspense to an almost unbearable pitch.

This is a great novel, which I read back in 2016 on account of Woolrich being 1980's industrial musician Boyd Rice's favourite author and I listened a lot to his records back in the 2010's. Truffaut's film adaptation is great as well, was really interesting to see the story adapted to 1960's France instead of 1940's America, as well as full of memorable images that still stick to me.

On a related note I wonder if "The Bride Wore Black" was an influence on the film "Lady Vengeance" directed by Park Chan-wook, as the plot hits some of the same beats.

This is fabulous -- I'm a huge Woolrich fan ever since hearing several of his radio plays as originally performed, when they were released on the podcast Down These Mean Streets. Love him! Just getting started with reading Bride Wore Black.

Sara wrote: "This is fabulous -- I'm a huge Woolrich fan ever since hearing several of his radio plays as originally performed, when they were released on the podcast Down These Mean Streets. t..."

Down These Mean Streets is a wonderful podcast. I'm presently going through the old backlog and have it in my regular podcast rotation.

I love to see all the comments so far. Is everyone enjoying the book? There is a chilling scene about a third of the way in (which I will spoiler tag) (view spoiler)[where the bride is playing hide and seek with a little boy while the father blissfully assumes all is well (hide spoiler)] that really had me on the edge of my seat.

Frank wrote: "Thanks to the Truffaut film this is probably the best known of Woolrich's Black series, though my own favorite is The Black Angel. As in his other novels, Woolrich builds the suspense to an almost ..."

"Building tension to an unbearable pitch" is a key part of Boyd Rice's compositional technique in his various music projects (in particular NON) so I can see that's where he finds a spiritual kinship with Woolrich.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I love to see all the comments so far. Is everyone enjoying the book? There is a chilling scene..."

That was a chilling scene. That whole section in particular really held my attention. I had to keep forcing myself to slow down because I was torn between wanting to know what happens next and enjoying the writing. I finished the book today. It is a very quick read. It is short and also very hard to put down.

I just finished and agree, though I was beset with limited reading time, I wanted to rush and keep forging ahead.

Shoot I’m sorry I missed this conversation, for some reason I thought this was his book I Married a Dead Man which I read and loved!

Yes, I Married a Dead Man was excellent too. I think I've been through that one at least twice.

This is the first time I'd read The Bride Wore Black and the pacing and suspense were outstanding. I kept wondering what these guys could have possibly done to her husband (not a spoiler as the title refers to her as a bride) to deserve this stalking revenge! And yes, like you others, by the time men with children were involved, it was just about unbearable, and somehow he managed to ratchet the suspense even higher after that. She was so unhinged, yet so cool and collected. I had to respect the dedication. But the ending twist was deliciously noir. All that energy...

I feel like this one may be in a Library of America volume that I have. If it is, I’ll read it this weekend.

I assumed Cornell Goodrich was British, by the name, but he was an American.

I loved his taut style and his clever plot creations.

The scene in which a tape recorder left on records someone's activities reminded me of a similar scene in the (later) film Sudden Fear. Gloria Grahame is the femme fatale who is plotting the murder of her lover's wife (Joan Crawford) with Jack Palance, and their conversation is discovered by the wife.

Well, it’s not in one of the LOA editions that I have so I checked a copy out from my local library this morning. I hope it’s a fun read for this coming week!

I’m about 100 pages in and think it’s excellent. I am noticing that for a New York crime story there is very little of a New York vibe to it. Other than the very beginning and a few random mentions that we are in the city or leaving the city, I feel like the scenes could take place almost anywhere.

I like how the book centered around our femme fatale. She was quite the chameleon, confounding all who were trying to deduce who she was. Loved the twist, revenge, revenge revenge.

(strangely, I used to get updates as to when entries were made here, I haven't checked here in a bit thinking it had been dormant)

Lawrence wrote: "I like how the book centered around our femme fatale. She was quite the chameleon, confounding all who were trying to deduce who she was. Loved the twist, revenge, revenge revenge.

(strangely, I u..."

there are bugs in the notification system on Goodreads. I had the same issues with posts in this group, also with server hanging up on me on a daily basis and extremely erratic search results.
One of my friends created a group about these issues,

here


but there doesn't seem to be any easy solution.

I finished this one. It was good. I like when the story continues to evolve up to the very end. This was a fun one!

I did finish this one a few months ago but neglected to make comments at the time. Here goes...

I thought it was just OK. This was Woolrich's first mystery/crime novel after a few general fiction tries, and in many ways it felt like a first novel. I thought the prose was awkward at times although, as Sara pointed, out the suspense and pacing were very good. I've already mentioned the scene where The Bride is playing with the child while the oblivious father reads the newspaper which was just chilling.

Plot-wise, the whole thing is laughably farfetched of course. That didn't really bother me though. I felt a sense of Grand Guignol which was highlighted by the ending. Speaking of the ending though, it was irritating how the detective several times foreshadowed a big twist and, to me anyway, stole some of the impact of the final scene.

I'm very interested in seeing the film now. I suspect some of the weak points of the plot were polished up by the filmmakers.