Of Tender Sin

Of Tender Sin is my first David Goodis novel, and I was impressed. People often categorise Goodis novels along the same lines as works by Jim Thompson or Cornell Woolrich. But Of Tender Sin reminds me of the earlier works by Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr Ripley), complete with the deconstruction of a paranoid, weak individual with criminal intent.In this book with have a young actuary and his wife going through ... a difficult patch. He thinks she is cheating on him. He also starts have strange visions (..the sudden appearence of platinum blonde hair on women) and disturbing flashbacks (unwholesome memories of his older sister). Just when his life couldn't get more weird he then sets on getting the man he thinks his wife is seeing, runs into an old flame (a very strange lady), and ... the story gets very interesting indeed.My only complaint with the book, and really a minor one, is the ending. Goodis writes very nicely, and the story builds up a decent level of suspense. But the ending seems anti-climatic and all too ... realistic. For a book that is very bizarre I didn't expect, or want, a believable ending.Bottom line: I can't understand why his books aren't better known. David Goodis is a talent, and Of Tender Sin is a fine read.

Every city has a street where the most pathetic bums congregate, where the filthiest flophouses and scariest bars are to be found. That's also where you'll find David Goodis's characters: Wherever they begin, you will find they will plummet to the lowest depths like a sinker. Alvin Darby is married to a beautiful brunette and works in an office making good money as an actuary, but there is a wild hair (literally) up his craw. He is drawn to a strange vision of a platinum blonde and can't quite figure why. Before he married, he ran around with one such blonde named Geraldine but found her too capricious. But his marriage starts to unravel as he suspects his wife of infidelity. Instead of confronting her, however, he loses himself in the platinum blonde dream and begins to frequent low bars and lower company.Sigmund Freud would approve of how Alvin confronts his past -- pardon me, but I can't divulge the secret -- and begins the slow process of redemption. Goodis is always worth reading, and this is one of his best, if not one of his better known. This British Serpent's Tail edition comes with a respectful if not exactly accurate introduction by Adrian Wootton, who seems to think the SATURDAY EVENING POST was a newspaper. I am grateful that Serpent's Tail published OF TENDER SIN and look forward to obtaining their other Goodis titles.

I always look foward to the David Goodis reprints, even back in the eighties from black lizard.During the last few years the odd titles published by serpents tail have come out so sporadically you wondered what the next title was going to be. No disappointment here! Of Tender Sin one of the earlier Goodis novels has the protagonist/antihero paired up with his muse "the downward spiral".Quick paced and a gritty philly backdrop provide the hardboiled goodis formula.For anyone not familiar with the Goodis ouevre welcome, for those in the know, lets just say this makes for a great beach read on a cloudy day.