A review by adamz24
The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing
3.0
Short, solid little crime thriller with Something to Say. Fearing was supposedly a worthy poet but the prose style here is only occasionally very interesting, mostly staying in the category of hardboiled stuff that's worth reading for the content more than the style. Some really interesting ideas, often not brought to life ideally. Themes of the corporate machine's dominance and an air of fatalism reign with little if any relief. No Raymond Chandler romanticism here.
As with several fine-but-not-so-great noir novels of the 30s and 40s, the film adaptation is superior. In the Library of America set I have this in, it's preceded by The Postman Always Rings Twice, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and Thieves Like Us. Out of the four so far, The Big Clock is more akin to They Shoot Horses, Don't They?: an interesting, short book with a pretty damn good film adaptation (TSH,DT? has a fucking unbelievably good film adaptation, I should clarify). Thieves Like Us is a great novel in its own right, unjustly forgotten by many it seems, despite the Robert Altman and Nicholas Ray films, both pretty good. The Postman Always Rings Twice has two tolerable film adaptations, but neither is anywhere near as good as the violent, sensuous, lush, and unrelentingly dark novel they're based on.
As with several fine-but-not-so-great noir novels of the 30s and 40s, the film adaptation is superior. In the Library of America set I have this in, it's preceded by The Postman Always Rings Twice, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and Thieves Like Us. Out of the four so far, The Big Clock is more akin to They Shoot Horses, Don't They?: an interesting, short book with a pretty damn good film adaptation (TSH,DT? has a fucking unbelievably good film adaptation, I should clarify). Thieves Like Us is a great novel in its own right, unjustly forgotten by many it seems, despite the Robert Altman and Nicholas Ray films, both pretty good. The Postman Always Rings Twice has two tolerable film adaptations, but neither is anywhere near as good as the violent, sensuous, lush, and unrelentingly dark novel they're based on.