≡ [PDF] Gratis Into the Night Cornell Woolrich Lawrence Block 9780445405516 Books

Into the Night Cornell Woolrich Lawrence Block 9780445405516 Books

Download As PDF : Into the Night Cornell Woolrich Lawrence Block 9780445405516 Books

Into the Night Cornell Woolrich Lawrence Block 9780445405516 Books

This was Cornell Woolrich’s final novel, left uncompleted at the time of his death in 1968. It was finally finished nearly 20 years later by the incomparable Lawrence Block.

Events are related through an obsessive, often irrational narrator. Madeline Chalmers is a desperate woman trying to commit suicide in the opening paragraph because, as she puts it, “life has no meaning”. The gun misfires against her temple. In a flood of relief Madeline tosses the gun onto a table, at which point it does fire, and the errant bullet flies out an open window and hits a passerby, Starr Bartlett.

This bizarre turn of events lends Madeline a new purpose to live for. She attempts to learn about the woman she killed and vows to fulfill any of Starr’s unfinished life purposes. This soon includes killing Starr’s ex-husband Vick, the man who broke her heart, and also wreaking revenge on the woman who wrecked their marriage.

Much like the only other Woolrich novel I have read (Fright), the prose is intentionally Gothic, almost melodramatic. Another similarity is inclusion of a few ludicrous plot holes: Madeline sees a picture of Vick but forgets what he looks like. She later includes a return address on an anonymous letter.

The strengths of Fright are also on display: The author makes great use of powerful tableaux. These are scenes in which he stops the action for several paragraphs to describe a split moment in painstaking detail. The one that stands out most is the description of a corpse submerged face down in a bathtub, with its unforgettable images of the dead woman’s arms caught on the lip of the porcelain bowl, thin slivers of blood trapped under her fingernails.

Several times I thought I could differentiate between passages written by Woolrich and Block, but I was wrong on all counts. Several of the minor characters had interesting, bleak backgrounds—the woman who lost her five year old son, the vet who was castrated by a hand grenade--that reminded me of some of Block’s best work in the Matt Scudder series. But no, these details all came from Woolrich.

Block’s major contributions were the first 14 pages (which I would have sworn were Woolrich’s own words) and the climax in the last 2 pages.

It is Block’s tacked-on happy ending which ultimately betrays what had been a decent potboiler up to that point. As explained in the afterward, Block chose to have Madeline fall in love with Vick because that is the ending Woolrich seemed to have been building towards, based on a discarded crossed-out first draft. It could have worked, but Block did not execute this strategy very well. Perhaps he was trying not to add more to Woolrich’s words than absolutely necessary. Block did not explain how Madeline’s emotions toward Vick went from disgust in the previous scene to love in the final scene. Nor did he establish the alternate creepy, perverse explanation—that perhaps Madeline in her own obsessive way was to trying to complete a total submersion into Starr’s life by stealing her identify and taking her place in the marriage.


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Into the Night Cornell Woolrich Lawrence Block 9780445405516 Books Reviews

Woolrich's incomplete novel of despair, revenge, and even love, takes the reader deep into the darkess abyss. Unfortunately, the novel was never completed and a discordently happy ending was appended to it. Nonetheless it is a fascinating novel what would make a women take up her victim's life and enact retribution on those who had harmed her in her life? All Woolrich fans should definitely read this book it is Woolrich in the 1960's -this time as gory and graphic as he could get away with.
Into the Night has some sustained sections of very good writing that immerses you in the Cornell Woolrich world of depair and evil. And for the most part Lawrence Block does an admirable job in filling in the missing sections of the book. Some of his passages truly fit seamlessly with Woolrich's.
But the decision to attach a happy ending is unfortunate and very unsatisfying. Maybe Woolrich left the novel undone because he didn't have an ending, or he knew that a happy one would ring false. I don't think anybody knows.
As it is the book's end simply undercuts all that came before, so it is hard for me to really recommend this book to anybody other than a Woolrich fan who wants to read everything by the author.
You can find more book reviews by me by searching for ''goldenrulecomics'' on hubpages.com.
One of Cornell Woolrich's last novels left unfinished at the death in 1968. It was missing a beginning, an ending and parts in between. Lawrence Block was hired to complete it. He did an OK job but ultimately failed.

It's about a woman (Madeline) who decides to commit suicide. She buys a gun but, when she tries to pull the trigger, it jams. It gives her a new lease on life. She throws the gun down on a table. It discharges, the bullet goes through a window and kills Starr--a woman walking by. Overcome by guilt she vows to find out who the woman was and finish everything she left unfinished.

Pretty bad. Woolrich's writing is OK but the plot is VERY far-fetched. There are plot holes and inconsistencies galore and Madeline is NOT a likable character. And the happy ending at the end was ridiculous. Still I read it all. For Woolrich completists only.
This was Cornell Woolrich’s final novel, left uncompleted at the time of his death in 1968. It was finally finished nearly 20 years later by the incomparable Lawrence Block.

Events are related through an obsessive, often irrational narrator. Madeline Chalmers is a desperate woman trying to commit suicide in the opening paragraph because, as she puts it, “life has no meaning”. The gun misfires against her temple. In a flood of relief Madeline tosses the gun onto a table, at which point it does fire, and the errant bullet flies out an open window and hits a passerby, Starr Bartlett.

This bizarre turn of events lends Madeline a new purpose to live for. She attempts to learn about the woman she killed and vows to fulfill any of Starr’s unfinished life purposes. This soon includes killing Starr’s ex-husband Vick, the man who broke her heart, and also wreaking revenge on the woman who wrecked their marriage.

Much like the only other Woolrich novel I have read (Fright), the prose is intentionally Gothic, almost melodramatic. Another similarity is inclusion of a few ludicrous plot holes Madeline sees a picture of Vick but forgets what he looks like. She later includes a return address on an anonymous letter.

The strengths of Fright are also on display The author makes great use of powerful tableaux. These are scenes in which he stops the action for several paragraphs to describe a split moment in painstaking detail. The one that stands out most is the description of a corpse submerged face down in a bathtub, with its unforgettable images of the dead woman’s arms caught on the lip of the porcelain bowl, thin slivers of blood trapped under her fingernails.

Several times I thought I could differentiate between passages written by Woolrich and Block, but I was wrong on all counts. Several of the minor characters had interesting, bleak backgrounds—the woman who lost her five year old son, the vet who was castrated by a hand grenade--that reminded me of some of Block’s best work in the Matt Scudder series. But no, these details all came from Woolrich.

Block’s major contributions were the first 14 pages (which I would have sworn were Woolrich’s own words) and the climax in the last 2 pages.

It is Block’s tacked-on happy ending which ultimately betrays what had been a decent potboiler up to that point. As explained in the afterward, Block chose to have Madeline fall in love with Vick because that is the ending Woolrich seemed to have been building towards, based on a discarded crossed-out first draft. It could have worked, but Block did not execute this strategy very well. Perhaps he was trying not to add more to Woolrich’s words than absolutely necessary. Block did not explain how Madeline’s emotions toward Vick went from disgust in the previous scene to love in the final scene. Nor did he establish the alternate creepy, perverse explanation—that perhaps Madeline in her own obsessive way was to trying to complete a total submersion into Starr’s life by stealing her identify and taking her place in the marriage.