Perfect hardboiled style to tell a gripping, page-turning noir.

Very memorable and dramatic. Exciting literature. ( )

A man on the run gets involved with a gang near Philadelphia and has to use his wits to survive. This is a very bleak story, like most of what Goodis wrote, but it rings true on every page. Unlike Charles Willeford, whose bleak stories always had a bit of an ironic tone and devil-may-care attitude to them that signaled it all wasn't quite real, Goodis doesn't let any light shine into this dark tale at all. There isn't a lot of action, the crux of the story are the interactions between the four men and two women holed up in Germantown, PA. Each of them may start with a stereotype, but Goodis breathes life into them, and even the least sympathetic character (it would really be hard to pick ONE) has a human side that disarms our preconceptions. The more I read of Goodis, the less the darkness of his work bothers me. I am beginning to enjoy it for its truth. ( )