Cassidy's Girl/David Goodis

My disappointment with the movie version of SIN CITY prompted me to read something noirish and hardboiled, so I went to my shelves and grabbed a copy of CASSIDY’S GIRL by David Goodis. Goodis is one of those odd gaps in my hardboiled reading. I own quite a few of his books and have been aware for a long time of his reputation as an excellent writer, but until now I’d read only one of his novels, NIGHT SQUAD (which I liked). CASSIDY’S GIRL is one of his best-known novels, and it really is a good one. Goodis was better than most at depicting the lives of boozers and losers. There’s a crime of sorts in this one, but it’s less of a mystery than it is a whiskey-soaked romantic triangle. That doesn’t mean there’s not plenty of suspense in it, though. My only complaint is that every now and then Goodis falls into the trap of telling more than he’s showing, but that’s minor and most of the time the book races right along and builds to a heck of an unexpected and satisfying ending. CASSIDY’S GIRL is a very good book, and I’ve got to read more of Goodis’s work.

Bibliographic note: Although CASSIDY’S GIRL was first published as a Gold Medal original in 1951, I actually read the 1967 Dell reprint edition, with cover (and not a particularly compelling one) by Barye Phillips. I own a copy of the Gold Medal edition but it’s not in very good shape, so I figured the Dell would make a good reading copy.