Monday, May 28, 2007
Bruno Fischer
Back when I was helping out Billy Lee with Paperback Quarterly, one of the first writers I interviewed (we did it by mail in those days) was Bruno Fischer. Like the others I got in touch with, he was extremely gracious and generous with his time, happy to help us out for no pay do an interview for a zine with barely any circulation. Ed Lynskey has a new article on his work at Al Guthrie's Noir Originals. Check it out. And don't miss Fischer's letter to Ron Goulart in Cheap Thrills, either.
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2 comments:
Books mean different things to different people for different reasons. In my case, as I wrote Ed Lynskey this morning, Fischer's The EVIL DAYS has stayed with me for nearly thirty-five years because a) I read it during the shaky time I was seeing the world without liqour or drugs in twenty years b) because of the way Fischer portrays the "quiet desperation" of the narrator, a decent man trapped in a job that doesn't pay enough with a wife who wants more than he can give in terms of creature comforts (and she's not unreasonable; Fischer is fair to her) and a sense that his life has already been lived and he's just coasting to the grave and c) the jealousy and distrust the mcguffin of the story inspires in him--and his wife's possible connection to the dead man. Again, maybe the simple reason that I was without the armor of my drugs to protect me....maybe that made me particularly sensitive to what Fischer was saying in the book. But I tell you I've read it three or four times since and it holds up extremely well. For me, it's his masterpiece. And what a hell of a great way to end a long career, your best book last. Ed Gorman
I have that Ballantine reprint, which I've read a couple of times. A fine book.
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