Lost Treasures

[John McFetridge]

Recently the movie The Frinds of Eddie Coyle came out on DVD and probably got at least a few people interested in the Georges V. Higgins novel it's based on.

I also recently saw the movie Straight Time (a very miscast Dustin Hoffman) and I've gone looking for the book of the same name it's based on by Edward Bunker (who has a cameo in the movie) and I've been looking for the novel that the Jack Lemmon movie, Save the Tiger was based on.

These are what I'd call "odd category" books as they aren't really mysteries and not exactly pulp.

So, I was wondering, what other older books would you put in this category?

[Robert Gregory Browne]

The Edward Bunker book, No Beast So Fierce, is tremendous. I read it when I was in my teens.

But I loved the movie as well. I thought Hoffman did a great job. I could even stomach Theresa Russell, who has never been much of an actor.

My lost treasure would have to be Some Kind of Hero by James Kirkwood. Tremendous book. TERRIBLE movie.

[John McFetridge]

That's the movie with Richard Pryor, isn't it? Yeah, some odd choices in that adaptation.

[Robert Gregory Browne]

Yeah. When I heard that Pryor had been cast, I was flabbergasted. WTF?

Prior was a great comedian, but that particular book deserved SO much better. It's a serious, poignant piece that really blew my socks off. I haven't re-read it since I was a kid, but I'm starting to get the itch.

[Mike Dennis]

John, I would classify David Goodis' The Blonde On The Street Corner into the "odd category" of novels. Despite the lurid title, it's not a pulp novel, nor is it a mystery in any sense. In fact, it doesn't even have a discernible story line. But Goodis' writing is so powerful, you can't put it down. I wrote a review of it on my website http://mikedennisnoir.com, if you're interested in a more detailed look at it, but I would definitely place it in your "odd category".

[John McFetridge]

I'll check it out, thanks.

[Joe Souza]

Wow! Good question, because Eddie Coyle is one of my favorite movies of all time. I think most of George V. Higgins books fall into this gray category, which was why he was so widely underrated. Check out Digger's Game, because that's his meatiest.

[Albert Tucher]

Higgins wrote terrific low-life dialogue, especially in Digger's Game.