Cassidy's Girl

Oh, jeez, is this book populated by a bunch of unpleasant people, always drinking -- a lot! -- and very often physically fighting with one another. After a promising college football career (University of Oregon) Cassidy becomes an airline pilot. When his copilot causes a disaster killing hundreds, Cassidy is blamed, and he turns to the bottle, hanging out in a lowlife bar by the waterfront docks. He and his girlfriend basically use fighting as foreplay. He meets a woman with an even grimmer background also very deep in the bottle and thinks he can save her, and meanwhile another drunk falls for Cassidy's girlfriend and triggers an event that is as horrifying as anything. As grim a book as I've read, and made even grimmer by very good show more characterizations. Worth reading, but it was a cloud over my head for a couple days. show less

Cassidy's Girl published in 1951 sold over a million copies. It is an example of the hard bitten crime fiction which was popular at the time. Goodis was an American author and screenplay writer who learned his craft writing for pulp magazines and Cassidy's Girl falls right in that genre.

James Cassidy has recently married Mildred and the couple spend their time partying and drinking hard liquor in down town Philadelphia. James has a day job as a bus driver and is trying to live down some notoriety as an airline pilot who was sacked for being drunk after a plane crash had led to many fatalities. James and Mildred smack each other around and their nights drinking with cronies often end in violence. James has ideas of pulling himself show more together and when he meets Doris another alcoholic who has a good education, he thinks of prising her away from the scene and running away together. Mildred has no intention of letting him go and violence and mayhem follow when James is arrested after crashing his bus and killing another 26 people.

This is pulp fiction for the adult market aimed at the best seller lists and so in its own terms it was successful. The alcohol infused violence reaches epidemic proportions and this is where Goodis' writing is at its most naturalistic, creating a sordid, lowlife scenario where nobody wins, but plenty of people get hurt. This macho infused creation has non of the subtlety or irony that I admire in the writing of Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, it is just relentlessly over the top with characters shrugging off hurled; well aimed whisky bottles as a matter of course. It was a relief to get to the end of this novel which was not to my taste and so a miserly 2 stars. show less

This is a painful book to read. The amounts of alcohol consumed defy belief, and the story of a disgraced airline pilot now working as a bus driver and his constant fights, with both words and fists, with his shrewish wife are very unpleasant to read about. None of which is to say that it isn't generally well-written, which it is. Perhaps that is what makes it so hard to take. The most similar book I have read is Charles Willeford's Pick-up, but its similarly downbeat story is told at a more micro level without so many melodramatics, and as a result it is more believable and effective.

Jim Cassidy has been down on his luck for some time as Goodis continues his story. Cassidy is married to Mildred in a very stormy relationship, but decides he really wants Doris. All 3 of these characters are lost souls, but Goodis really makes you pull for Cassidy's character even as he spins even more out of control. This book is about Cassidy's continuing story.

David Goodis was a noir fiction writer and screen writer. Most of his work was published between the 40's and 60's. He died in 1967 at the age of 50. He had just filed a lawsuit against the popular TV series, The Fugitive, claiming it was based on his work, Dark Passage, a serialized novel that first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. I can remember being hooked into the show more Fugitive, so learning about this was very interesting. I think I'm going to have to find a copy of Dark Passage now.

If you like your fiction dark, I think you will like Goodis. Evidently he was a big influence on Ken Gruen, my new favorite author. This book did make me wish I had a dog I could kick around, though. For more on Goodis, refer to this website. show less

Fast Grim and so Goodis!

I adapted this book for the screen. Please check out the website
to view progress...

www.cassidysgirl.com