David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s & 50s (LOA #225): Dark Passage / Nightfall / The Burglar / The Moon in the Gutter / Street of No Return (Library of America Noir Collection)

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 Lorretta Channing the beautiful, enigmatic socialite and sister of Newton the drunk. Loretta's the impossible dream, the escape route 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 promptd 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 enthraling classic of American noir fiction. An “impressive new volume” of 5 noir novels by the cult-favorite author who stands alongside Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett as a master of American crime writing (The New York Review of Books) Among the pantheon of American crime writers—those masters of noir whose powerful vernacular style and dark and subversive themes transformed American culture and writing—David Goodis was a unique figure. Now, The Library of America and editor Robert Polito team up to celebrate the full scope of Goodis's signature style with this landmark volume collecting five great novels from the height of his career. Goodis (1917-1967) was a Philadelphia-born pulp expressionist who brought a jazzy style to his spare, passionate novels of mean streets and doomed protagonists: an innocent man railroaded for his wife's murder (Dark Passage); an artist whose life turns nightmarish because of a cache of stolen money (Nightfall); a dockworker seeking to comprehend his sister's brutal death (The Moon in the Gutter); a petty criminal derailed by irresistible passion (The Burglar); and a famous crooner scarred by violence and descending into dereliction (Street of No Return). Long a cult favorite, Goodis now takes his place alongside Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett in the pantheon of classic American crime writers. In 1997 The Library of America's Crime Novels: American Noir gathered, in two volumes, eleven classic works of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s--among them David Goodis's moody and intensely lyrical masterpiece Down There , adapted by Franois Truffaut for his 1960 film Shoot the Piano Player . Now, The Library of America and editor Robert Polito team up again to celebrate the full scope of Goodis's signature style with this landmark volume collecting five great novels from the height of his career. Goodis (1917-1967) was a Philadelphia- born pulp expressionist who brought a jazzy style to his spare, passionate novels of mean streets and doomed protagonists: an innocent man railroaded for his wife's murder ( Dark Passage ); an artist whose life turns nightmarish because of a cache of stolen money ( Nightfall ); a dockworker seeking to comprehend his sister's brutal death ( The Moon in the Gutter ); a petty criminal derailed by irresistible passion ( The Burglar ); and a famous crooner scarred by violence and descending into dereliction ( Street of No Return ). Long a cult favorite, Goodis now takes his place alongside Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett in the pantheon of classic American crime writers. For the first time, the best work of a distinctive master of American noir is available in authoritative e-book editions from The Library of America. The Moon in the Gutter (1953) is one of David Goodis's many tours of the down-and-out neighborhoods of his native city of Philadelphia. William Kerrigan's pursuit of the riddle of his sister's death in an obscure alleyway provides the starting point for a tortuous journey into "the darkness of all lost dreams." Other David Goodis novels available as Library of America E-Book Classics include: Nightfall , Dark Passage , The Burglar , and Street of No Return . Collects Five Crime Novels Of David Goodis All Dealing With Unfortunate People And Dark Doomed Settings. Dark Passage -- Nightfall -- The Burglar -- The Moon In The Gutter -- Street Of No Return. David Goodis ; Robert Polito, Editor. Includes Bibliographical References.