Bruce Elliott (1) (1914–1973)

What a terrific pulpy story! Elliott takes a whole bunch of pulp motifs and knits them together. Here, we have the escaped convict desperate, lonely, and wandering through the dregs of society. The opening chapters to this book are dark, noir-ish, tragic, and bitter. There's little to look forward to and not much that is pure or good - not the girl who didn't wait for him or the money she disappeared with -- not the whore who seemed empty and flabby without her girdle -- not the hopheads haunting tea houses -- not the bums in the railroad yards with no loyalty to anyone.
And when Camonille reaches a small town where he get up a grubstake the world is no cleaner. There's jailbait teenyboppers, lush widows in fancy cars, thieving plotting men, jealous lovers, hatred, misery, and all kinds of twisted plots. Although the noir atmosphere of the first few chapters isn't quite there as strongly in later chapters, the dark, desolate, world is. And Camonille is trapped in this world with one foot in a grave just as surely as if he were serving out his full sentence.… (lisätietoja)