O'Neal Library Blog: Nightmare Alley

Press release from the O'Neal Reader:

Emmet O'Neal Library

September 29, 2021

Please join the Lost & Found: 20th Century Classics book group to discuss William Lindsay Gresham's peerless noir Nightmare Alley on 28 October 2021. 

Register here: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/5617842

Click to reserve a copy of the book.

Perhaps best remembered as a beautifully-made Tyrone Power film from 1947, the novel pushes boundaries that Hollywood, during that period, couldn't begin to touch. It begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.

And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with an alluring assistant (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.

There is nothing quite like this novel in the American canon. It was chosen by the Library of America for its "American Noir: 11 Classic Crime Novels of the 30s, 40s and 50s." A remake of the film, directed by Academy Award-winner Guillermo del Toro and starring Bradley Cooper, will be released on 17 December 2021.

Lost & Found: 20th Century Classics meets on October 28th at 6:30pm on the 2nd floor near the head of the stairs to discuss this brilliant portrait of greed; it's perfect for fans of both the Golden Age of American noir and All Hallow's Eve! 

If you have any questions, contact Gregory at glowry@oneallibrary.org or leave a voicemail at (205) 445-1147. 

We look forward to seeing you at O'Neal Library!

This press release was produced by the O'Neal Reader. The views expressed here are the author’s own.