Pulp Poem of the Week

Apples taste

so much better

indoors.

Tsugumi Ohba

Death Note

(2003-2006)

(translated by Pookie Rolf)

Pulp Poem of the Week

more relieved

than bereaved

Koushun Takami
Battle Royale
1999
(translated by Yuji Oniki)

Book Review: Richard Stark, Plunder Squad (1972)

After taking a kind of vacation in Slayground, Parker gets back to work in Plunder Squad, and it is, as always, the kind of book that Starklake does best: a slice of life from the career thief. Whereas Slayground was a set piece, Plunder Squad is tangle of events from the ongoing story of Parker’s criminal career. And it is, as well, the clearest evidence you could want that Parker is a pure sociopath: Any sane person would work in a McDonald’s rather than deal with Parker’s problems. Grade: A-

Book Review: Koushun Takami, Battle Royale (1999)

Lord of the Flies as formally organized competition: In a Japan-like dictatorship, 42 fifteen-year-old classmates are forced to play a killing game till one of them remains. Each kid is issued a bag of supplies—including one weapon, which could be anything from an Uzi to a fork—and they are turned loose on an island, where they will complete the competition or all be killed. The 2009 English-language edition of Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale features a newly corrected translation, interviews with the author and with the director of the film version, and a foreword by Max Allan Collins in which he makes a fair case for himself as the world’s coolest dad. These bonuses in some measure compensate for the novel’s weak dénouement, which culminates in perhaps the lamest final page in the history of the printed word. Grade: C+

Pulp Poem of the Week

I sit here writing, not daring to stop,

For fear of seeing what’s outside my head.

Bob Kaufman

“Jail Poems”

1959

Pulp Poem of the Week

I wondered which would be better—

to work as a prostitute to live,

or to die rather than work as one?

I’d say the latter answer would be

the one chosen by the healthy mind,

but then again,

there’s not really anything healthy

about being dead.

Anyway, they do say that women

who are sexually active tend

to have a better complexion.

Not that I cared if

I was healthy or not.

Hitomi Kanehara

Snakes and Earrings

2004

(trans. by David James Karashima)

Book Review: Hitomi Kanehara, Snakes and Earrings (2004)

Woodenly translated Japanese nihilnoir. Sort of like They Shoot Horses, Don't They? with the dancing replaced by tattoos, piercings, and demeaning sex. Grade: C-

Pulp Poem of the Week

I had no idea

How much brains

He had

Until

I saw them.

David Rachels

Verse Noir

2010

Book Review: Richard Stark, Lemons Never Lie (1971)

The best Grofield novel earns its status as the best Grofield novel by being the Grofield novel that is most like a Parker novel: The Sour Grofield Score with minimal opportunities for Actor Alan to play the wiseass. Grade: B+

Book Review: Richard Stark, Slayground (1971)

I prefer to read novels knowing as little as possible about them going in, so Slayground represents a special achievement for me: I began reading the often-discussed, often-praised fourteenth Parker novel knowing absolutely nothing about it—I even managed to tune out the illustrations on the cover of the Chicago reprint (except for the always-present Big Gun). So, in that spirit, I’m not going to tell you anything about it, either. Grade: B+

Book Review: Richard Stark, Deadly Edge (1971)

Deadly Edge perhaps deserves better than the grade I give it, but I’m trying to make distinctions within the Parker canon—or, to put it another way, a C-level Parker novel is still a damn good novel. “Part One” of the book, which runs uninterrupted for nearly 50 pages, details Parker and his partners stealing the all-cash take from a rock concert. No one does this sort of thing better than Starklake, and Deadly Edge would be worth reading just for this set piece. The 150 pages that follow are not nearly so compelling, as Parker plays cat and mouse with two uninteresting villains who want to steal what he has stolen. This, too, is well done, but Parker-the-thief is almost always more interesting than Parker-the-anything-else. Grade: C+

Pulp Poem of the Week

Lit by her son,

5,

a signal flare burst

under the skirts of

Mme Roger, of Clichy;

damages were

considerable.

Félix Fénéon

Novels in Three Lines

1906

(translated by Luc Sante)

Book Review: Richard Stark, The Blackbird (1969)

One reason that the Parker novels are superior to the Grofield novels is that, over the long haul, it's more pleasant to spend time with a sullen sociopath than a smartass. In The Blackbird, Grofield's schtick begins to wear thin around page 100, but the book has more than enough action and intelligence to keep you going. Grade: B-

Book Review: Gil Brewer, Memory of Passion (1962)

Contrary to what you may have heard, Gil Brewer had his mojo working well beyond the 1950s. Memory of Passion tells of a husband wife who still have “active glands,” though not for each other. Things get complicated when the flame of the husband’s teenaged years reappears in his life—having not aged a day in more than 20 years. Things get more complicated still when we learn that this ageless flame is being stalked by a serial killer. Another excellent Brewer ripe for rediscovery. Grade: A-

Pulp Poem of the Week

I stood on the top

of the toboggan slide,

thinking how small it was

really,

and how large it had looked

to me when I was a kid.

It had been a world then,

a big one.

You could get lost in it.

Now I knew no world

was big enough

to get lost in.

Gil Brewer

“Final Appearance”

1951

Pulp Poem of the Week

It’s too late

for anything

but

getting away.

Gil Brewer

The Red Scarf

1958

Pulp Poem of the Week

He looked as if

somebody had

machine-gunned

his soul.

Gil Brewer

13 French Street

1951

A New Gil Brewer Story!

Courtesy of yours truly, an unpublished Gil Brewer story will appear in the next issue of Needle. Read all about it here:

Gil Brewer story to debut in NEEDLE

Pulp Poem of the Week

When one sells mattresses,

one has an in.

Talk comes quickly

to the point.

A woman wants to

purchase a mattress.

Take it from there.

Gil Brewer

Play It Hard

1960

Pulp Poem of the Week

I was as hollow and

empty

as the spaces between the

stars.

Raymond Chandler

The Long Goodbye

1953

Pulp Poem of the Week

Cars littered

the sloped lawn

like discards

on green felt.

Gil Brewer

A Taste for Sin

1961

Pulp Poem of the Week

The calm,

Cool face of the river

Asked me for a kiss.

Langston Hughes

“Suicide’s Note”

1925

Pulp Poem of the Week

he

needed

killing

Gil Brewer

Appointment in Hell

1961

Book Review: Gil Brewer, A Taste for Sin (1961)

David’s Femme Dépravée Theorem: The quality of a traditional Everyman noir is in direct proportion to the depravity of its femme fatale—and it doesn’t hurt if she also happens to be married to a clerk at the local bank. Brewer had written this book before, but not with this much panache. Available in a two-fer from Stark House Press. Grade: A-

Pulp Poem of the Week

Once you’ve

made up your mind,

it doesn’t

hurt so much.

Gil Brewer

“The Axe Is Ready”

1956

Book Review: Gil Brewer, Appointment in Hell (1961)

Gil Brewer didn’t like writing this book, and I didn’t like reading it. Brewer didn’t like writing it because its South American setting required him to do research; I didn’t like reading it because Brewer’s sex-driven characters aren’t believable in this setting. Three men, three women, their plane has crashed in the jungle, and, yes, of course, they want to tend to their injuries, to find food . . . but the main thing they want to do is have sex . . . oh, and to find shelter, too, and maybe to build a raft to take them back to civilization . . . but, hey, is it okay if they screw some first? Please? They’ll worry about that whole survival thing later. Really . . . they promise . . . right . . . after . . . the . . . next . . . LAY! Grade: D+

Pulp Poem of the Week

The halls twisted like a digestive tract
through the spacious house.
They hadn’t been designed to be complicated—
at least I thought they hadn’t—
and yet at each intersection I found myself
losing track of where I was.
As I walked along the black floorboards,
I started to feel the illusion of the halls
languidly moving
like the peristalsis of the intestines.

Otsuichi
Black Fairy Tale
2004
(translated by Nathan Collins)

Pulp Poem of the Week

do not suspend him until

he is reinstated from expulsion so

I can suspend him as of last month so

I can reinstate him to be expelled, so—

Jim Thompson

Bad Boy

1953

Book Review: Otsuichi, Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse (2000)

I read this one for the title novella, Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse, an excellent juvie noir pageturner narrated from the POV of a murdered little girl. Also included are a short story, “Yuko,” which reminded me of Hawthorne, and a novel, Black Fairy Tale, a J-horror story that weaves together an amnesiac and a serial killer, a winning combination if ever there was one. Translated by Nathan Collins. Grade: B+

Pulp Poem of the Week

The sun was bright and

hot as the insides of

a Russian horse doctor’s valise.

George H. Smith

Bayou Babe

1960

Book Review: Jim Thompson, Bad Boy (1953)

Jim Thompson’s Bad Boy is tepid autobiography in the vein of Jim Tully’s early books: a series of broad-stroke anecdotes in search of a narrative. The book gets stronger as it goes, with its most famous section detailing Thompson’s encounters with the sheriff who inspired the creation of The Killer Inside Me’s Lou Ford. But this juxtaposition serves only to highlight the comparative thinness of Bad Boy: Thompson may have been haunted by his memories of this man, but in the real-life telling he is (perhaps unavoidably) the barest husk of Lou Ford. Grade: C+

Pulp Poem of the Week

It was like being in a room

with no windows or doors.

You kept running against the walls,

slamming into them.

You knew there was no way out.

But back in your mind,

something told you

there had to be a way out.

So you rammed, and rammed,

smashing against those walls.

You’d reel around and try again.

Something had to give—

either one of the walls,

or you.

Gil Brewer

The Three-Way Split

1960

Book Note: The Best American Crime Reporting 2010, edited by Stephen J. Dubner

This year’s stand-out: David Grann’s “Trial by Fire,” the story of Todd Willingham, a man accused of burning his house with his children inside.

This year’s stinker: Ernest B. Furgurson’s “The Man Who Shot the Man Who Shot Lincoln,” a boring summary of the life of Boston Corbett.

Book Review: David Rachels, Verse Noir (2010)

Follow this link for a nice write-up of Verse Noir at Spinetingler.

Book Review: Gil Brewer, Play It Hard (1960)

Gil Brewer mashes up Cornell Woolrich (I Married a Dead Man crossed with The Black Curtain) with his own sexed-up Gulf Coast noir. Perhaps not his best, but I’m always a sucker for noir amnésique. Grade: B-

Pulp Poem of the Week

She moaned and she moaned.

After a while they lay still.

The house waited.

Gil Brewer

Backwoods Teaser

1960

Book Review: George H. Smith and Gil Brewer, Bayou Babe (1960)

You can have a remarkable time reading George H. Smith’s Bayou Babe, but only if you read Gil Brewer’s Backwoods Teaser first. Brewer's novel was published in January 1960; Smith’s book followed five months later. In between, Smith took considerably more than inspiration from Brewer. The books have the same premise, more or less the same opening scene, and many scenes scattered throughout are eerily similar. Historical bottom line: An unexpected payday for Brewer when someone alerted him to Smith's plagiarism. Grade reserved for plagiarists and The Colorado Kid: F-

Book Review: Gil Brewer, The Three-Way Split (1960)

The Three-Way Split begins with Gil Brewer reworking the opening of one of of his short stories. In “Death Comes Last” (Hunted Detective Story Magazine, October 1955), Brewer begins with an aggrieved protagonist, who runs a modest charter-boat service, getting shafted out of his fee because his obnoxious clients didn’t catch any fish and one of them lost a watch overboard. The Three-Way Split begins with another aggrieved protagonist running a charter boat, and this time a necklace falls into the Gulf. On this occasion, however, our protagonist—Jack Holland, which also happens to be one of Brewer’s pseudonyms—manages to find the necklace, and he finds something else too: a recently uncovered sunken ship. Perhaps it contains treasure? After this, Brewer rushes to get his other characters on stage: Jack’s girlfriend, his girlfriend’s sister, his friend the old treasure hunter, his ne’er-do-well father, and the men who want to kill his ne’er-do-well father. If you like this sort of thing, how much you ultimately like The Three-Way Split will probably hinge on how effective you find its ending. Currently available as part of a two-fer reprint from Stark House Press. Grade: B-

Book Review: Gil Brewer, Backwoods Teaser (1960)

Erskine Caldwell meets James M. Cain for swamp titillation. As much comedy as it is noir. Quick, professional, for Brewer completists only. Grade: C

Pulp Poem of the Week

She was

as dry as

an invoice.

Èmile Zola

The Kill (La Curée)

1872

(translated by Brian Nelson)