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Were watching you so don’t pull
anything phoney——or else your
kid gets knocked off see. We
mean that Mrs. Cobb.
Now from filling station drive
straight to Darien —turn right
BEFORE going under R.R. bridge.
You turn your trip spedometer
to OOO. Follow car line.
You go exactly ONE mile and STOP.
Have packages ready!! If you
tip COPS its goodnight for kid.
How about it? We’ll meet you.
Norman Klein
No! No! The Woman!
1932
MrS Cob If you are aS smart
aS you think you are youll
Stop meddling in other peoples
affaires pronto and take a
hint from peopl that Shoot
straight. go back to Europe
and stay there We give you
ONE week to Clear out.After
that the 1st warning is
ACID throw in your face but
next time its DIE.
Norman Klein
No! No! The Woman!
1932
From her eyes
wrinkles ran down
to the corners
of her mouth,
the scars of
ancient tears.
Norman Klein
No! No! The Woman!
1932
I may read Norman Klein’s No! No! The Woman a second time, not because I liked it but because I’m still trying to figure out what I just read. I mean, how many vintage hardboiled novels end by quoting Friedrich Nietzsche? I learned of this novel’s existence from a 1932 review in the New York Times. The opening sentence of the review declares that Klein “has aligned himself with the hard-boiled school of mystery writers, and he always calls a spade a spade except when he happens to think of some uglier term for it.” And the review concludes, “In brief, the tale has no moral and no morals.” Sounds promising, right? In the main, the novel is a sloppily plotted whodunit. Its protagonist, Leslie Cobb, returns stateside from Europe after the death of her great-aunt, Sophia Pollard. Cobb soon comes to believe that her aunt was murdered and begins amateur sleuthing. She resembles a hardboiled detective mainly in her irreverent wisecracking. It is easy to spot things that might have been shocking in 1932—though today, a foot fetishist (for example) will doubtless disturb fewer readers. Surprisingly, just when it seems that the narrative belongs entirely to Cobb, a conventional hardboiled detective (name: Lee M. Carnley) appears on the scene. Ultimately, however, the narrative becomes Cobb’s again. This is probably a good thing, but I wouldn’t swear to it. Grade: C+
