THE
LOVE
OF
GOODIS
BY
KEN BRUEN
I love David Goodis
Love and Goodis are rarely in the same sentence
More’s the Irish-ed pity
In fact, He and love are seldom on the same page
The usual responses to his name are
Bleak
Noir
Deranged
Demented
A lot like love really
Ask most mystery writers for their influences and it’s the same tune, Chandler, Thompson
Yada yada
Yet few throw a darker, more influential shadow than Goodis.
Though he has his advocates
Lou Boxer, Greg Mills [Gillespie], Duane Swierczynski, The Philly boyos and way over in Scotland, the multi talented Al Guthrie
Their admiration, like his writing is ferocious
More power to them…….and to their labour of sheer love
Goodiscon
Few writers live’s are the very essence of noir
But Goodis, you couldn’t invent it
After a prolific career in New York as major pulpist, he returned home to Philly
……………………to live with his parents
Jesus wept
And became a virtual recluse
He rented, in California, not a beach house but a sofa
I shit you not
Four bucks a month
In a friends house
That figure intrigues me; I would love to have heard that deal go down
Then he’d prowl
Using the sofa as a crash pad
His taste ran to fat black hookers
He paid them to humiliate him
They obliged
And not for four bucks either
His wardrobe, not there’s a story
He wore suits till they were threadbare, then dyed them blue and went right on wearing
Them
John Belushi would have loved him
And figure this, he’d carefully take the red cellophane from cigarette packets, jam it up his nose and feign nosebleeds
Then howl in pain
Jesus, who wouldn’t
The breath of his success tends to be overlooked
He published his first novel at 21 and secured a six year contract with Warner Brothers
He was only 28 when his most famous book, Dark Passage, was sold as the Bogart/
Bacall vehicle.
His fragile grasp on reality slipped with the death of his father
Then his mother died and the bell tolled, darkly
He sued the producers of The Fugitive, claiming they’d stolen his work
Next stop…………………the asylum
By the age of 49, he was dead
What a fucking shame
I wont say waste as his writing is his testament
Most commentators on Goodis sling out, paranoia, madness, delusion
In Irish, we have the word, Bronach…………it’s beyond sadness, beyond depression or melancholia
It is truly a soul sickness
He epitomizes that concept
His final Novel
“Somebody’s done for.”
Was published after his death
The resonance of that title is as knowing as it is heart wrenching
Few bodies of work convey urban life during the heyday of pulp as vividly as his do
Pulp began to lose it’s popularity and the sixties were for him I think, pure hell
When he died in 1967, the end of pulp was truly sealed
To watch Dark Passage………or better…………to read it, is to marvel at his sheer shining talent
Goodiscon is a fitting and wondrous celebration of a man, who’s mind, plagued by every malevolent spectre you can conjure, wrote, I believe, not because of them………………but despite them
I have one suit and you know…………it might not be so bad in blue
The cellophane I’ll keep on hold
I’ve howled enough
The old people in the West of Ireland pray
Codlamh samh mo cara agus dia leat
Sleep peaceful my friend and god mind you well
Goodiscon is ensuring this is so.
Ken Bruen was a finalist for the Edgar, Barry, and Macavity Awards, and the Private Eye Writers of America presented him with the Shamus Award for the Best Novel of 2003 for The Guards, the book that introduced Jack Taylor. He lives in Galway, Ireland.
FOR
THE
LOVE
OF
GOODIS
BY
KEN BRUEN
I love David Goodis
Love and Goodis are rarely in the same sentence
More’s the Irish-ed pity
In fact, He and love are seldom on the same page
The usual responses to his name are
Bleak
Noir
Deranged
Demented
A lot like love really
Ask most mystery writers for their influences and it’s the same tune, Chandler, Thompson
Yada yada
Yet few throw a darker, more influential shadow than Goodis.
Though he has his advocates
Lou Boxer, Greg Mills [Gillespie], Duane Swierczynski, The Philly boyos and way over in Scotland, the multi talented Al Guthrie
Their admiration, like his writing is ferocious
More power to them…….and to their labour of sheer love
Goodiscon
Few writers live’s are the very essence of noir
But Goodis, you couldn’t invent it
After a prolific career in New York as major pulpist, he returned home to Philly
…………………….to live with his parents
Jesus wept
And became a virtual recluse
He rented, in California, not a beach house but a sofa
I shit you not
Four bucks a month
In a friends house
That figure intrigues me; I would love to have heard that deal go down
Then he’d prowl
Using the sofa as a crash pad
His taste ran to fat black hookers
He paid them to humiliate him
They obliged
And not for four bucks either
His wardrobe, not there’s a story
He wore suits till they were threadbare, then dyed them blue and went right on wearing
Them
John Belushi would have loved him
And figure this, he’d carefully take the red cellophane from cigarette packets, jam it up his nose and feign nosebleeds
Then howl in pain
Jesus, who wouldn’t
The breath of his success tends to be overlooked
He published his first novel at 21 and secured a six year contract with Warner Brothers
He was only 28 when his most famous book, Dark Passage, was sold as the Bogart/
Bacall vehicle.
His fragile grasp on reality slipped with the death of his father
Then his mother died and the bell tolled, darkly
He sued the producers of The Fugitive, claiming they’d stolen his work
Next stop…………………..the asylum
By the age of 49, he was dead
What a fucking shame
I wont say waste as his writing is his testament
Most commentators on Goodis sling out, paranoia, madness, delusion
In Irish, we have the word, Bronach…………..it’s beyond sadness, beyond depression or melancholia
It is truly a soul sickness
He epitomizes that concept
His final Novel
“Somebody’s done for.”
Was published after his death
The resonance of that title is as knowing as it is heart wrenching
Few bodies of work convey urban life during the heyday of pulp as vividly as his do
Pulp began to lose it’s popularity and the sixties were for him I think, pure hell
When he died in 1967, the end of pulp was truly sealed
To watch Dark Passage………..or better…………..to read it, is to marvel at his sheer shining talent
Goodiscon is a fitting and wondrous celebration of a man, who’s mind, plagued by every malevolent spectre you can conjure, wrote, I believe, not because of them………………but despite them
I have one suit and you know…………..it might not be so bad in blue
The cellophane I’ll keep on hold
I’ve howled enough
The old people in the West of Ireland pray
Codlamh samh mo cara agus dia leat
Sleep peaceful my friend and god mind you well
Goodiscon is ensuring this is so.
The above poem appeared in the GoodisCON program book.
Ken Bruen is an Irish writer of hard-boiled and noir crime fiction. His works include the well-received White Trilogy and the Shamus award-winning The Guards. In 2006, Hard Case Crime released Bust, a collaboration between Bruen and New York crime author Jason Starr. Other works of note include The Killing of the Tinkers, The Magdalen Martyrs, The Dramatist and Priest, all part of his Jack Taylor series, which began with The Guards. Set in Galway, the acclaimed series relates the adventures and misadventures of a disgraced former police officer working as a haphazard private investigator whose life has been marred by alcoholism and drug abuse. It chronicles the social change in Ireland in Bruen's own lifetime, paying particular attention to the decline of the Catholic church as a social and political power. Themes also explored include Ireland's economic prosperity from the mid 1990's onwards, although it is often portrayed as a force which has left Ireland as a materialistic and spiritually drained society which still harbours deep social inequality. This is the side of the Celtic Tiger best portrayed in Bruen's Irish-based novels. Immigration is also a theme to be found in these works.
His novel Her Last Call to Louis Mac Niece (1997) is in production for Pilgrim Pictures, his "White Trilogy" has been bought by Channel 4, and The Guards is to be filmed in Ireland by De Facto Films.
Ken Bruen was educated in St. Joseph's College in Galway city and later at Trinity College Dublin, where he earned a Ph.D. in metaphysics. Bruen travelled extensively, teaching English in many countries..