Quotes from Woody Haut

OUT TODAY — THE NEW POCKET BOOK THAT MAY REVOLUTIONIZE AMERICA'S READING HABITS' (from a 1939 Pocket Book advertisement)

Goodis's fiction contains a tortured beauty that can take one's breath away. He may not have been Dashiell Hammett. But then Hammett was no David Goodis.

He wanted to open the door and rush downstairs and smash their laughter down their throats. His hand went up and found the cord that switched on the light, and he took a few steps toward the door. Then it occurred to him that they weren't worth it.

Goodis's protagonists find refuge amongst tramps, thieves, whores and drunks.