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This is a very compelling book to read, but to describe it as noir fiction is almost an understatement. It is pretty bleak most of the time. The protagonist doesn’t have much going for him, or at least has had a rotten start in life. I don’t wish to say too much because of spoilers but he does turn his life around to an extent.
I have no idea if the American penal system is as harsh as it seems to have been in the mid-60s, when this was first published, but Hard Rain Falling would be an excellent book to give someone who has embarked on a life of (petty) crime. It’s Christmas coming up, so consider this an idea for a present for the juvenile delinquent in your life.
The bleakness is such that I stopped reading the book in bed, because I didn’t want depressing dreams. But it’s a compelling read while ensconced in an armchair or on a train journey.
Two things I didn’t like much. Firstly, it doesn’t have the great lines we find in Raymond Chandler’s work, though I acknowledge that it’s probably not fair to compare the two writers.
More seriously, there are long, long passges of telling the reader what someone is thinking. The experience reminded me of those old movies and TV where ther is a voiceover telling you what’s going on instead of simply showing you.
Still, it’s a good read on the whole, and satisfyingly different from a lot of the new novels coming out these days.
