Book Review - Nightmare Alley - William Lindsay Gresham
‘Nightmare Alley’ by William Lindsay Gresham is a gloriously lurid, bleak nightmare of a book set in 20's and 30's America starring Stan Carlisle, a worker in the Ten-and-One Carnival, which features a variety of acts, freaks and a geek. He's eager to please and willing to do whatever it takes to learn the tricks of the trade. In fact, there's no depths Stan won't sink to in order to realise his own dark version of the American Dream.
As per usual, I'm writing about the novel without trying to give away anything of the plot, just the basics. ‘Nightmare alley’ is a hardboiled noir classic, with a rich seam of dark humour, delivered with a burning cigarette hanging out the corner of its mouth and nursing a glass of brown liquid.
The Carny
Early in' ‘Nightmare Alley’ there's a fantastic sweeping scene that takes us around each of the characters in the 'carny' in the middle of their acts. It's just wonderfully written by Gresham and I knew from then I was going to enjoy this book. Just beautifully detailed, whip smart and darkly funny.
Stan Carlisle (played by Bradley Cooper in the movie) is a fantastic character, full of devilish ambition and willing to sacrifice whoever and whatever to achieve his dream of untold wealth. He's always on the lookout for that one big scam that will see him retiring to Florida. He’s completely ruthless, willing to do whatever it takes to climb to the top. He might not be the most likeable of characters, but he completely pulls you into his narrative.
'Nothing matters in this goddam lunatic asylum of a world but dough'
Carlisle believes he understands the basest motives of humans and what drives them. He's a ruthless manipulator of those around him, especially those who fall for him and his black heart.
‘The rest of them drink something else: they drink promises. They drink hope. And I've got it to hand them.’
Supporting Cast
There's a wonderful supporting cast in ‘nightmare alley’ - from Molly, the naive but eager electric girl, Zeena the formidable fortune teller, to Joe Plasky, the half man acrobat who you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of.
There are a couple of wonderful scenes depicting Stan's childhood, which are perfect in going some way to explaining some of his characters motivations and explaining why he views people the way he does. His sense of behaviour and reward is somewhat skewed, shall we say.
'Find out what people are afraid of and sell it back to them.'
I loved Gresham’s writing in this - incredibly lean, a character or situation summed up with a single line. There isn’t a word wasted. It put me in mind of Raymond Chandler, and I don’t think there’s much higher praise than that. It’s the bare essentials of writing, pared down to the basics and it’s an absolute dream to read. The plot fizzes along, pulling the rug from under your feet just when you think you know where it’s going.
Book Review Summary
‘Nightmare Alley’ is dark, nightmarish hard boiled noir and I loved it. At time it’s sleazy and lurid and there’s a price to be paid, as usual, and sometimes you get what you deserve. It’s about greed, addiction and mental illness and I got completely pulled into the story and couldn’t help but be fascinated by the complicated character of Stan. I just found out that Del Toro is making a movie based on the book, and the cast sounds perfect - I can just see Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Toni Colette, Williem Defoe and Bradley Cooper in their respective roles. I hope the director keeps to the bleak dark heart of the book. Maybe there's a role for Tom Waits as well; if not, he'd be perfect for the audiobook.
Book review - Nightmare Alley - William Lindsay Gresham
Bloomsbury books - Kindle Edition
275 Pages