extremely depressing but also thrilling working class novel. i have watched the movie based on this book made by JULES D
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Books
PimpinAinttEasy — 9 years ago(October 19, 2016 02:58 AM)
extremely depressing but also thrilling working class novel. i have watched the movie based on this book made by JULES DASSIN. really liking this one so far.
anyone else read this? -
PimpinAinttEasy — 9 years ago(October 26, 2016 07:40 PM)
Thieves' Market is a dark and thrilling working class novel. I had watched the Jules Dassin movie many years ago. I never realized it was based on this book until recently.
Two outwardly tough men, who are completely torn apart inside, enter into a partnership to buy apples from a farmer and drive them in their trucks to make a profit in the market. Nick is a rookie slowly being eaten away by anomie caused by the death of his father, life with his cruel mother and a horrible workplace. Ed is a veteran but family life and responsibilities are slowly pulling him down. The two men struggle with each other, their values, wicked businessmen, prostitutes and their own inner demons which threaten to consume them.
Clever one liners populate the dialog. And like the desolate inner landscapes of the tortured characters, the landscapes and the atmosphere through which the two men drive their trucks are described starkly by Bezzerides:
"It was a cold foggy morning and it was going to be one of those days with the foghorn blowing every three minutes and the fog rolling in from the bay. It could be seen hanging like an incubus over the canyon of the street, but soon it would be coming down, soaking the market."
"Waves rolling in, carrying on them the scum and sewage of the harbor, and when the wind shifted, a smell rose from it, the giant bad breath of the city."
Thieves' Market was published a year before Wages of Fear (another novel with desperate working class characters embarking on an impossible mission). I enjoyed it immensely. Especially Nick's inner dialog when he looks back at his father's life. You feel like he embarks on this mission only to save some kind of family honor which was something I could identify with. The ambiguous ending was interesting - it seemed to suggest regeneration for Nick. (less)
(8/10) -
Carl-LaFong — 9 years ago(October 27, 2016 04:04 AM)
Sounds good.
He wrote the scripts for a few films noirs, including the excellent On Dangerous Ground. Kiss me Deadly is his most famous movie script though - it's pretty great dialogue.
They Drive by Night (based on one of his novels) is very good too.
You're my wife now. -
charleychicken — 9 years ago(October 27, 2016 11:28 PM)
I made a mistake. A I was Albert Isaac.
His Wikipedia article says he was born in Turkey. His family went to the USA before he was 2 yrs. He died in 2007.
He did more screenwriting than novel writing.
I'm not a criminal Iris, I'm an outlaw. -
PimpinAinttEasy — 9 years ago(October 28, 2016 01:46 AM)
charley, he is half armenian and half greek:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/feb/06/guardianobituaries.obituaries
On camera, AI (Albert Isaac) Bezzerides, who has died aged 98, recalled his Armenian mother and Greek father; the way he put himself through college by driving trucks, like his father, and doing other tough jobs; his friendships with William Faulkner, William Saroyan, Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum, and the period from 1942 to 1959, when he was one of Hollywood's top screenwriters.