Thursday, June 19, 2014

Paperback 790: The Big Brokers / Irving Shulman (Avon G1009)

Paperback 790: Avon G1009 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: The Big Brokers
Author: Irving Shulman
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $10

avon1009

Best things about this cover:
  • Poster hanging outside the world's toughest barber shop.
  • "We can do five haircuts. That's all. Five: The Wedge, The Mob Boss, The Moll, The James Dean's Dad, and the Sandy Duncan. You want anything else, keep walkin'."
  • Honestly, though, this is how all pulp characters look in my mind. Exactly.

avon1009bc

Best things about this back cover:
  • Joyce has clearly seen every variety of dipshit male-kind has to offer.
  • "Finally goes berserk" — oh, Bull, I'm sorry I laughed so hard at this. Please forgive me.
  • Itzik has no front. Only a back. It's pretty gruesome.

Page 123~

Alex worked his way back toward Brighton and he stepped along briskly, without a worry in the world, picking up his bets: twos and threes and fives and tens, twenties, and even a fifty-dollar one from a player who was running in luck so that Alex wondered if he hadn't a secret source of dirt available to him, and while Alex walked, whistling and snapping his fingers when he wasn't destroying betting slips, his senses were alerted for shadows and cops.

Honestly, the sentence just before this one was even longer.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

4 comments:

Random White Guy said...

I can visualize each floating head with a thought bubble simply saying, "Grrr!"

DemetriosX said...

Bull is kind of baby-faced for a tough guy. But then again, maybe that's what made him tough.

And I have to say that Mitch looks as though the description of a book about his life would feature the word "frank". Which might explain the look on Joyce's face.

FA Neophyte said...

Mitch kind of looks like the Baldwin brother who Found Jesus.

Unknown said...

Do you know where I can find this paperback with this cover?