Paperback 1117: Dell 374 (1st ptg, 1950)
Title: Night and the City
Author: Gerald Kersh
Cover artist: [movie still: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney]
Condition: 6/10
Value: $10-15
- Two of the greatest, smoldering for your attention
- This is one of my favorite movies, and one of the greatest films noirs of all time. It's probably my favorite movie of 1950, which is Saying Something (1950, after all, has All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard, Born Yesterday, etc.)
- Harry Fabian is the quintessential noir hero. Antihero. Loser-hero. Just wants to be somebody. Thinks he can work the system and outsmart the big boys. Finds out ... otherwise. If that's not noir, I don't know what is.
Best things about this back cover:
- Mapback! All books should be mapbacks. I really don't understand why they're not.
- Frank! Feels like forever since the "Frank!" alarm has gone off. My favorite paperback cover adjective returns (albeit in adverbial form)
- Cabbie, please take me directly to HONKATONK BOTTLE-PARTY. Located at ... [squints at book] ... 5? No, just 5. I don't know. 5! Find it! Use "The Knowledge!"
Page 123~
He walked slowly back to Rupert Street, entered quietly and undressed in silence. He was relieved to see that Zoë slept soundly.
He undressed and crept into bed beside her.
She sighed, and whispered: "Chihuahua—"
Look, I'm sure there is explanatory context here, I'm just saying, I don't wanna know it. I'm gonna just assume that "Chihuahua" is a term of endearment for Harry, or else that she is dreaming of tiny dogs ... or that "Chihuahua" was the name of her childhood sled.
~RP
1 comment:
Map-back makes up for photo cover, although this one is a little too detailed. The front looks too much like a TV Guide.
"A novel of the half-world of petty crooks and streetwalkers." Demimonde. The word you're looking for is demimonde. It has become a perfectly normal English word. Nobody says half-world.
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