Duane Swierczynski about Goodis

As I said earlier, I was writing an article about David Goodis, the quintessential noir writer of the fourties and fifties. For a side article, I asked Duane Swierczynski why he likes Goodis. I'll post his questions here as well:

>What makes Goodis so important?

Well, I'm not sure about important--I mean, reading a David Goodis novel has not been known to cure impotence and/or mild skin conditions. But he is special, because his novels are the blackest comedies you'll ever read. So black, in fact, you can barely detect the comedy.

>What made you pick up Goodis in the first place?

I sought him out because he was writing books set in the Philly neighborhoods I knew; that was a mindblower for me. And he was writing about Phialdelphia about 20 years before I was born; reading his novels are kind of like stepping into a local time machine.

>What's your favourite amongst Goodis's books?

It's a toss-up between BLACK FRIDAY and DOWN THERE (SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER), the ultimate in little-guy-get-screwed noir novels.

My Goodis collection

I'm writing an article about David Goodis, one of the seminal hardboiled writers of the fourties and fifties, and thought I'd scan some books from my own collection...

Naaaah, just kiddin'. I looked these up on Abebooks. I wouldn't mind owning a book on the left: it's the first hardcover edition of Goodis's most famous mystery novel, Dark Passage (1946). Neither would I have any trouble having the photoplay edition below.

Goodis's first

Here's Goodis's first novel, from 1938. It belongs to the social realist school of the thirties, but the reviews were bad and Goodis abandoned more serious writing to hack away stories for the aviation pulps.

Moon in the Gutter

Just finished this (I read the early nineties (or late eighties?) Midnight Classic reprint). It's very good, even though I had some quibbles at the romantic ending. I decided to name Goodis "a proto-Bukowski" in my article (even though I'm a known hater of Bukowski.)

Romance Goodis?

This looks a bit like a romance paperback, don't you think?

An Israeli Goodis

Here's a David Goodis paperback published in Israel by Priory (I think it was actually a British outfit, doing books in Israel for taxing reasons).