Thursday, March 5, 2009

Friday Forgotten Books- The Long Haul


The Long Haul by  A.I. Bezzerides

I came to this book after having watched and enjoyed the film Thieves' Highway, directed by Jules Dassin. That film was based on his book Thieves' Market. I had to inter-library loan his three novels and was shocked that I enjoyed The Long Haul more than Thieves' Market. The book tells the story of Nick and Paul, a pair of brothers trying to make a living as wild cat truckers. They drive long hours, deal with few lucky breaks and lots of hauls that go poorly or don't pay off as promised. Clocking in at just over 200 pages, Long Haul is a look at the American Dream in failure, as the hard charging and working man pulling as hard as he can on the boot straps can't get any traction. The book was made into the film They Drive by Night in 1940. Bezzerides was a better than solid writer who deserves to be better known and more wildly read. The copy that I was able to get was from Wayne State University, and appeared to be a 1938 edition, complete with a letter from Bezzerides in the front, and I love the fact that the library card pocket still present in the back pocket had the words "Depression Novel" typed neatly on it. 

thoughts, comments, spare change?

4 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

Whoops, almost missed you. Thanks.

Cullen Gallagher said...

I've been itching to read this ever since I saw the movie! I may have to follow in your footsteps and use the interlibrary loan.

What is the "letter" that you refer to? Is it something printed as part of the novel, or is it really a letter from Bezzerides himself?

Iren said...

Patti- that's ok... I didn't think it would be ready for this week, but just went ahead and got it done.

Cullen- The letter is really what we would consider a forward these days. It's printed as part of the book... it would have been cooler if it was a letter from the man himself, but alas no.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

This is actually in my TBR pile - I'm looking forward to it even more after your review.