The Wounded and the Slain

The Wounded and the Slain

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Customer Reviews

More about a hard marriage than a Hard Case

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ray, 2009-11-06

James and Cora Bevan are married, yet living separate lives. They take a trip to Jamaica to work on their marriage, but as usual James drinks too much and spends little time with his wife. He ventures into town, and his involvement in a bar fight leads to blackmail, extortion, and the wrong man ending up on death row.

The Wounded and the Slain is less about crime than many of the other books in the Hard Case Crime series. Though there is plenty of crime and violence, it is more the story of a relationship gone sour and one man's effort to find his humanity again.

Engrossing, different

Reviewed by Phil S., 2009-09-14

It's tempting to call this a "book noir", but Goodis' multi-colored detail impresses the travalogue lover in all of us: it's early '50s Kingston...often relying on period stereotypes, but never patronizing. The local "accents" are wonderfully captured in print, as characters' voices echo off aging second-grade wood in back alley liquor haunts. Sometimes we are placed *inside* the character; sometimes we are totally objective observers.
A Hollywood portrayal would have Glenn Ford as Bevan, the once man's man, now confused and beaten by a platonic marraige and June Allyson as Cora, the woman whose womanhood has yet to blossom. In typical 1950s fashion, instead of going to a Marriage Counselor, or joining a Gym, or taking a Course, they pack up and head to the Caribbean. But, initially, to no avail. They just indulge their impulses, separetely. Bevan looks for trouble; Cora is fascinated by a confident, well composed fellow-tourist, physically strong but with an intellectual bent.
Goodis expertly guides us to the climax...not gonna give it away.

A Dark And Somber Journey

Reviewed by James J. Caterino, 2008-12-06

David Goodis has a reputation as one of the bleakest of Noir writers, and it is quite evident in "The Wounded and the Slain", an expertly crafted psychological foray into the fractured psyche of an emotionally and sexually scarred man who may be beyond redemption.

With workman-like prose, Goodis does a fantastic job of creating a detailed atmosphere, both physically (the potrayal of a 1950's Jamaican resort and the seedy side of town on the outskirts is vividly portrayed) and psychologically (we get to inside the minds of these characters, especially Bevan and Cora). The suspense, although not plot or action driven, never lets up, and I found myself fascinated by this pessimistic, emotional journey into the dark side if noir.

A great entry into the Hard Case series, with yet another stunning cover by Glen Orbik.

A walk on the dark side.

Reviewed by Michael G., 2007-07-26

Thinking people today would never use the term frigid to describe someone's wife. But in the less enlightened 1950s, the era in which David Goodis wrote, the adjective frigid was routinely applied to women like Cora Bevans, the long suffering spouse of James Bevans.

James is basically a good man who loves his wife, but her inability to enjoy marital relations has driven him to drink... in a big way. In a last ditch effort to save their marriage and to prevent James from drinking himself to death, the two travel to Kingston, Jamaica for a restorative vacation. When another man starts flirting with Cora, James reacts by foolhardedly venturing out into Kingston's most poverty-stricken, depraved slum to somehow redeem himself or die trying.

Author David Goodis does a great job in describing the nightmarish milieu of the otherwordly Kingston neighborhood James finds himself drawn to. Moreover, there is plenty of well written introspection to help the reader understand the mental anguish experienced by both James and Cora.

The Wounded and the Slain is a depressingly dark yet compelling tale that speaks to the hopelessness Goodis saw as being part and parcel of life as we know it. A skillfully crafted novel, recommended to readers not afraid to glimpse into the darker side of what it means to be human.

NOT MUCH!

Reviewed by Milan Simich, 2007-07-16

David Goodis' novels are not really about mystery or crime...they are about sex, sex, sex, sex, sex.!!

Sometimes they are terrific, and sometimes they are not. This one is not.