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Article: Recalling the Roman Noir Behind `The Getaway'
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- February 20, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Americans wrote them, but it took the French to figure out what
to call them: "roman noirs," black novels.
Derived from the tough-guy pulps of the '30s and '40s, the
American "roman noirs" had their peculiar heyday in the mid-'50s,
when mass-market paperback publishing had just been invented. They
were the quintessential bus- and train-station book, less than 200
pages long, meant for tired travelers on all-night rides between
trunk towns like Memphis and Texarkana.
Their authors were Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis and, of
course, Jim Thompson (whose "The Getaway" has gotten its second
Hollywood treatment).
The books were their last stop on the road to hell - usually
stories of doomed ...