|
Noir News |
|
The Literature |
|
Crime |
|
Miscellany |
|
Guestbook |
|
Search Noirnovels |
|
|
NoirNovels.com - A unique repository for all things noir
No Beast So Fierce
Reviewed By Rogue Max Dembo is a convicted felon. Sentenced to eight years for armed robbery, Max desperately wants to leave behind the life of crime which is all he knows. Released on parole, he is forced to live a strait-jacketed existence, with an uptight, squarejohn Parole Officer called Rosenthal watching his every move. After the initial 'rush' of freedom, Max hooks up with friends from his past, conscious that he has to keep such liaisons a secret from Rosenthal, lest he be thrown back in jail for a parole violation. Max sets himself up with a job, and a place to live, all the time walking the thin line between the world he knows, and the world he must now live in. Things are tough for Max but he just about hacks it, that is until he meets up with an old acquaintance desperately in need of a heroine fix. Max lets him shoot up in his room, only to receive a surprise visit from Rosenthal just after the junkie has left the pad. Not convinced by Max's protestations of innocence, Rosenthal drags him down for a drugs test, and throws him in jail to await the results. Three weeks later, Max is released, only to decide that he can no longer resist the urge to be what he is, a criminal. And so begins Max's journey back into a world of violent crimes, but this time, can he beat the odds and stay out of jail? Does he even care? Edward Bunker presents a powerful and chillingly realistic portrayal of a hardened criminal. Bunker himself has spent a significant portion of his life behind bars and that is research material you just can't buy. Dembo is a self-centred, brutal, career felon but you can't help but have a grudging respect for him. The narrative is very clever in the way that it toys with your view of the main character. At times, Max disgusts you, and you are almost willing bad fortune upon him (and he gets his share of it), and at other times you're rooting for him. The other characters that drift in and out of Max's life are also superbly brought to life; junkies, strong-arm men, shysters, downtrodden wives, whores...You can believe the portraits because you know that Bunker has been down there, in the underworld, on the shitty side of town. Written in the first person, No Beast So Fierce reads like a memoir rather than a novel. There is nothing fantastical about the storyline, nothing that you couldn't believe. It is all brutally realistic. Bunker concentrates on the human element of the story, spending very little time describing the world in which Dembo exists. But that is not to say that the story is played out in some bland universe. What is described tells you all you need to know, no more. This is not a minimalist book, far from it. It is just raw, lean and as hard as a coffin nail. This is one of the truly great crime novels of the recent past and is absolutely essential for any fan of the genre. Bunker's style and plotting avoid being stereotyped in any way and it is this uniqueness that I would commend to all noir fans. If you haven't read a Bunker novel before, this is as good a place as any to start; if you have, then expand your collection and get this book. You will not be disappointed. |
|
Add a review |
|
|