Hard Rain Falling

I generally try to get the vintage copies of books, especially if the author is not around anymore. No need to give "The Big Five" more money. A quick Biblio, Abe (I know... I know who they are owned by... but at least the booksellers are just regular folks trying to get by), & Bookshop visit can give you vintage/used options if your normal go-to is Amazon. I've even made pen pals of a sort through buying from independent sellers. All around a better experience. 

Anyhow, older paperbacks of this particular novel are pretty cost prohibitive so I ended up with the more recent New York Review of Books edition from someone on Biblio. The George Pelecanos intro to this edition is ok. Short and sweet. He understood the assignment and what makes this a worthwhile read.

That said, I'm not sure that I have too much to say about this one. There is some great dialogue.

"Holy Cats," Jack said. "Did you see this shower? One sprayer up on top,

for on the sides. Man, they must stand in there and just plain go out of their minds. 

An the control aint two handles, it's one that goes from cold to hot."

Its bleak though. Bleak throughout, but the final quarter seems to exist just to hammer home how awful life can be for some people and rich people get everything they want. I could have done without that portion completely. The first bit, in Portland and environs is great though, especially if you are at all familiar with the area. Now that I'm thinking about it (writing about it)... its kind of 3 books or novellas in one. From hustling in the pool halls to prison to domestic(?) life and its trappings... 

It's worth a read if any of that sounds good.  For a much better summary and bio on Carpenter head over to this great substack post..