In a back street in the rough end of Philadelphia, docker William Kerrigan obsesses over the mysterious suicide of his sister. Into a dive bar walks Loretta Channing the beautiful, enigmatic socialite and sister of Newton the drunk. For Kerrigan, Loretta's the impossible dream, the escape route from out of his hellhole existence, away from the crowded tenements, the shacks, the dark alleys. But Loretta may also hold the key to finding out what prompted his sister's death, the reason he can never break free. The Moon in the ...
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In a back street in the rough end of Philadelphia, docker William Kerrigan obsesses over the mysterious suicide of his sister. Into a dive bar walks Loretta Channing the beautiful, enigmatic socialite and sister of Newton the drunk. For Kerrigan, Loretta's the impossible dream, the escape route from out of his hellhole existence, away from the crowded tenements, the shacks, the dark alleys. But Loretta may also hold the key to finding out what prompted his sister's death, the reason he can never break free. The Moon in the Gutter is a fierce and heated tale of desire and revenge. Made into a film starring Gerard Depardieu and Nastassia Kinski, it remains an enthralling classic of American noir fiction.
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Add this copy of The Moon in the Gutter to cart. $17.29, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Serpent's Tail.
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Fine in Not Issued jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. First edition thus, first prnt. Originally published by Zomba Books in 1983. Illustrated perfect-bound wraps. Meant for sale in the US. Beginning page toning. Near Fine condition. Basis for the 1983 film "La Lune dans le Caniveau" directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix with Gérard Depardieu, Nastasha Kinski, and Victoria Abril.
David Goodis ( 1917 -- 1967) lived and worked in Hollywood before returning to his hometown of Philadelphia in 1950. When he returned, he lived in a room in his parents' home and published pulp novels as inexpensive paperback originals. Among these novels is "The Moon in the Gutter" written in 1953 and set in a poor decaying section of Philadelphia. The book is included in a collection of five Goodis novels recently published by the Library of America. David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s (Library of America) Each of the five books deserves individual attention. In 1983, Goodis' novel was loosely adapted for a French film, directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix and shown at the Cannes Film Festival. The film changes the setting from Philadelphia to Marseille.
Goodis wrote in a genre which tends to become formulaic, but each of his novels that I have read has its own character. This evocatively titled novel is about lonely and lost people-- categories which, the book suggests, are found widely across social classes. The book reminded me of the Victorian novelist George Gissing, particularly of his early books "The Nether World". Gissing wrote of the London poor and of their relationship to the more economically fortunate classes. Goodis explores similar themes in "The Moon in the Gutter" with a pessimistic sensitivity similar to Gissing's Among other writers with related tone and themes, I thought of Charles Bukowski and of Jack Kerouac.
The main character of the book is William Kerrigan,35, who lives unmarried in a squalid home on Vernon street with relatives. Kerrigan works as a stevedore in the tough world of the Philadelphia wharfs and is the only memb er of his household with a steady job. Seven months before the book begins, Kerrigan's beloved sister, Catherine, had killed herself in an alley due to depression resulting from rape. Kerrigan wants to find the perpetrator. Plot is less important in this book than character, place, and mood.
The settings of the book include the alley and the streets of the neighborhood, Kerrigan's home, the wharf where he works, and a shabby neighboorhood bar called Dugan's Den. A character from a wealthier portion of the city, Channing, is a patron and a slummer at Dugan's Den. Early in the novel when he meets Kerrigan, Channing describes himself in terms that essentially apply to the other figures in the book. "Im lonesome all the time.... I've been everywhere. I've done everything, and I've known everybody. And what it amounts to, I'm lonesome."
As he leaves Dugan's Den, Kerrigan reflects that "he was riding though life on a fourth-class ticket" before offering one of the many passages of description of the neighborhood in the book:
"He stared at the splintered front doors and unwashed windows and the endless obscene phrases inscribed with chalk on the tenement walls. For a moment he stopped and looked at the ageless two-word phrase, printed in yellow chalk by some nameless expert who put it there in precise Gothic lettering. It was Vernon Street's favorite message to the world. And now, in Gothic print, its harsh and ugly meaning was tempered with a strange solemnity."
As the book progresses, their are violent scenes on the docks, in the streets, and in the homes. Besides Kerrigan's search for the man who ruined his sister, the plot turns on Kerrigan's relationship with Loretta Channing, the sister of the man that slums in Dugan's Den. Loneliness and isolation have no class boundaries in this novel. The tone of the book is of loss and poignant sadness.
"The Moon in the Gutter" offers a bleak yet lyrical vision of poverty and of what Goodis sees as the loneliness of the human condition. It is a work of literature that gets beyond the categories of pulp or noir.
Robin Friedman
gstacy
Sep 13, 2007
they can't write 'em like they used to
i want david goodis to be my own little secret treasure, to have and to hold, and to covet knowingly when i read him on the train. but then i want everyone to give him the recognition and success that he deserved and did not get before he left us. " you kids today, and your muuusic..."
