Required reading for those who like dark mysteries.
It doesn't get more nihilist than Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham, one of the all-time best noir novels. This breathtaking story was filmed in 1947 starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell, a classic in its own right.
This is unforgettable.
Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, disgusted to witness the freak show geek - an alcoholic with nothing to lose, willing to debase himself (biting the heads off chickens) for the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust. Wondering how a man can fall so low, he vows nothing like that will ever happen to him.
Working the phony fortune teller booth, he learns all the tricks and sees an opportunity for an act in dinner clubs, even if it means betraying his carnival friends and leaving them behind. A hit with upscale society, he begins to give exclusive readings and learns their secrets - with the help of a popular but unscrupulous therapist. Their partnership grows and with success, the desire for a big scale con, a massive payday. Graduating into a full-blown spiritualist, it looks like the world is Stan's for the taking - with no thought he could fail.
Published in 1946, this compelling novel was both acclaimed by critics and denounced for being shocking and brutal, just as it feels today. The reader gets pulled behind the curtain to see all the tricks of the carny con, the scam of a 'mentalist' who rises to believe he is authentic - and the slow walk down into an unlit nightmare.
"Far down at the end of it a light burned, but there was something behind him, close behind him, getting closer until he woke trembling and never reached the light."
Gresham was deeply into psychoanalysis and fascinated by the tarot (using the deck to structure the book). He also controlled his anxieties with alcohol and Nightmare Alley reads like it could have been written during a binge. The vicious evil of the therapist, the betrayal of his carny friends, and the self absorbed hubris combine to paint a macabre view of Stan's future.
A physical alcoholic, Gresham killed himself in a Times Square hotel room in 1962 at the age of fifty.
1946 / Tradeback / 245 pages
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