Pulp According to David Goodis

There is plenty to like in Jay Gertzman's book, Pulp According to David Goodis and he backs up his research two fisted styled with anecdotes about the author and his life in Philadelphia, where many of his novels are set. Populated with grim losers, has been prize fighters, rummies and bar flies, Goodis examined the dark side of the street up close and personal. Even after finding some success in Hollywood as a screenwriter and a successful novelist, Goodis returned back to Philly to live with his aging parents and his schizoid brother, mining a vein of pulp narratives for fool's gold. If you aren't aware of Goodis and his wonderful edgy novels, now is the time to find out what all the fuss is about. Gertzman knows his subject in depth and it is reflected in this book; I highly recommend this walk on the wild side and encourage all crime readers to start hunting for those excellent Black Lizard reprints of Goodis' work. There never was another writer like Goodis and he is overdue for his time in the spotlight. Grab on hard with both hands and take a good long stare into the abyss that is life with Goodis as your tour guide.

David Goodis was the author of 18 novels and a slew of short stories He worked briefly as a screen writer and saw many of his novels turned into movies. Today, the noir author is known only to vintage paperback collectors, noir enthusiasts and the French.Jay Gertzman’s newest book, Pulp According to David Goodis, is a study not only of Goodis, but the times in which he worked and his city, post-War Philadelphia. Anyone familiar with Gertzman’s works knows that his research is impeccable, his commitment to truth is unrelenting, and that he’s one a handful of scholars who can write with both passion and clarity.The author brings Goodis to life by bringing a part of Philadelphia to life— the Skid Row, the dives, cheap hotels, and hard scrabble working places. This underbelly is populated by the homeless who learn how to protect themselves from crooks, pickpockets and violence. Scattered among them are the lost and the fallen who refuse to let fate beat them.We see Goodis who is outwardly cheery and humorous while hiding dark secrets and obsessions. We see Goodis the writer committed to bringing to life the plight of the poor in a merciless class society disguising itself as democracy. We see a man invited to Hollywood and, disillusioned, returning to his parents’ home in his native city. We see the compassionate man and the man with rather specialized sexual preferences.Pulp According to David Goodis studies a noir master’s works and shows the depths of Goodis’ insights.This labor-of-love will be the definitive study of the writer and his writing for years to come. Hopefully, it will lead to a much deserved resurgence of interest in the artist who shined a light on the forgotten, then faded from view himself.

American artistic accomplishment can be found in seemingly unlikely places. At the time of his death, David Goodis (1917 -- 1967) and his paperback original pulp fiction had been virtually forgotten. Gradually, some readers developed an interest in Goodis. In 1997, the Library of America included his novel "Down There" in a volume of 1950's noir fiction. In 2012, the LOA published a volume devoted to Goodis, including five additional novels. These two volumes helped me and many other readers discover Goodis. I went on to purchase and read some of Goodis' additional novels that were available and relatively accessible. I read Philip Garnier's own English translation of his biography: "Goodis: A Life in Black and White" (2013) and watched the film adaptations that I could find of Goodis' writings. I loved this author that I had only recently discovered.I was glad to find this outstanding new critical study of Goodis, "Pulp According to David Goodis" by Jay Gertzman, Professor Emeritus of English at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. Gertzman specializes in American publishing history and is an authority on Goodis: with our shared interest, he and I became acquainted through several online sites. Gertzman kindly sent me a review copy of his book.Born in Philadelphia, Goodis worked as a Hollywood screen writer and wrote several novels before returning to Philadelphia where he lived in his parents' home for the rest of his life. In Philadelphia, Goodis wrote the series of "paperback originals" or pulp fiction for which he is best--known today. Gertzman's book delves deeply into Goodis' life and writings with an emphasis on several of the books he wrote upon his return to Philadelphia with their lyrically dark exploration of Philadelphia's lower-class neighborhoods and their inhabitants.Gertzman places Goodis and pulp writing within the context of American literature. Goodis and other pulp writers once were not taken seriously, a situation that has fortunately changed. Gertzman distinguishes between American "authors" who wrote serious, thoughtful books for demanding readers and American "writers" who wrote to be popular and to entertain. Goodis self-described himself as in the latter category. With the market for throwaway pulp paperbacks that sold for about a quarter, Goodis and his publishers aimed to reach a large market. Gertzman develops six characteristics of the genre crime, noir novels Goodis wrote which were designed to appeal to readers seeking a titillating read through identifiable characters and situations. If that were all there was to Goodis, he would not deserve the attention he has received. Gertzman shows how Goodis took the conventions in which he worked and developed them with originality and feeling based largely on his own creativity and experiences. The distinction between "author" and "writer" or between "serious" literature and "trash" ultimately becomes blurred and in the case of a gifted author such as Goodis seriously misleading.In his study, Gertzman combines analysis of Goodis' novels with analysis of the work of Freud and Kafka, among others. He offers a history of Philadelphia in the years after WW II as it became the setting of much of Goodis' writing. Gertzman discusses the themes that pervade Goodis' fiction, including poverty, fate, the failed search for intimacy, conflicts in recognizing and fulfilling one's sexual needs, entrapment in a destructive way of life, loneliness, and ultimately, the possibility of a redeemed life in the middle of failure. The Goodis hero as a "noble loser" and the characterization of Goodis' writing as "doomed romanticism" are themes that run through this study. Gertzman sometimes takes a novel and offers a sustained, close reading. In other instances, he examines a work of Goodis, sometimes more than once, based upon a variety of themes the work presents.With the LOA volumes and other works that are reasonably accessible, some of Goodis is still difficult to find. Some of Gertzman's most detailed analyses are of works that I and most readers probably still have been unable to find and read. Thus, in his opening chapter, Gertzman offers a detailed reading of Goodis' 1952 paperback original "Street of the Lost" and shows how this work in many ways captures the themes of Goodis' output in its own inimitable way. I enjoyed learning about what seems to be a fascinating, violent book and am sorry that it is not in print or easily accessible.In his final chapter, Gertzman offers another detailed analysis of Goodis' final novel "Somebody's Done For" (1967). This again is one of Goodis' less accessible titles. Readers of Goodis have mixed responses to this late title, with some disliking the book and others finding it a masterpiece in its way. Gertzman is of the latter opinion and discusses the book convincingly and well, concluding that it is a "tragedy of the common man". I learned a great deal about Goodis from Gertzman's discussion of "Somebody's Done For" and would love to have the opportunity to read the novel itself.Gertzman also offers thematically-oriented discussions of Goodis novels I have read, centering upon their Philadelphia locations, including "Cassidy's Girl" "The Moon in the Gutter", "Street of No Return" the "Blonde on the Street Corner" and, of course "Down There" (which became a famous movie, "Shoot the Piano Player") His discussions of these books are wonderfully evocative. He discusses "Of Tender Sin", a book I have read, which explores themes of incest as it wanders through Philadelphia's mean streets. Gertzman also offers a perceptive reading of "The Burglar", a work with a discussion of the nature of loyalty and morality which also became a film with Jayne Mansfield as a major character. This is a work of Goodis which has long fascinated me and which is readily accessible in the LOA volume.Gertzman devotes a chapter of his study to a discussion of Kafka and to parallels between Kafka and Goodis. He uses Kafka with insight at several points in his study. While the discussion of Kafka is illuminating, I found that this study works best when it focuses on Goodis' own books and on his life and on the settings of his writings.I became absorbed and Gertzman's study and wanted to think about Goodis again, to reread the works I know and to read some of his books for the first time. The book helped me understand why I was so taken with Goodis when I found him. He may not be for every reader. Those who love Goodis and who are interested in noir and pulp fiction will learn a great deal from Jay Gertzman's study.Robin Friedman

This is the only book to read on Goodis, a classic study that makes all predecessors superfluous, Gertzman has written the break through seminal classic on a tricky and complex but crucial Noir author. Gertzman has carried out a thorough and meticulous body of research into Goodis, exploring in depth his literary relevance within the wider ongoing Noir canon, his tropes, and their ongoing importance within Amercian culture, his relationship to other authors (Thompson included) who occupy similar terrain, and research into Goodis the man himself, fascinating, brilliant.

You can't help learning a lot from this, about pulp paperbacks, Philly's working class struggles after WWII, Hollywood screen writing and the "Commie menace", incest in crime novels, Hitchcock's Vertigo, Kafka, Faulkner, and the Jersey Pine Barrens."