Joseph Angell > Recent Status Updates

Not so much a “crime novel,” which carries implications that HRF doesn’t have, as much as it is a literary and existential coming of age story (in which no one comes of age), more in line with Ken Kesey and Leonard Gardner than Jim Thompson and David Goodis.

This book has the reputation of being a lost classic and a classic crime novel. An argument could be made for the former, but not so much the latter (as the NYRB intro suggests). Has more in common with Leonard Gardner or Ken Kesey than Jim Thompson or David Goodis. It’s an existentialist coming of age story, not a crime novel.