Nightmare Alley - New York Review Books Paperback Edition | Classic Noir Novel for Book Clubs & Mystery Lovers

‘Nightmare Alley’ is a very appropriate title for this tortured novel. A hallucinogenic dread hovers over the entire book from the first introduction of a geek in a sideshow carnival to the last desperate looming destiny that constitutes the conclusion. The main character, Stanton Carlisle, is a drifter looking for a place to land at the beginning of the novel and becomes absorbed with the image of a pitiful savage of a man.First of all, what is a geek? In reality, the geek was a drunkard that was driven so low as to be willing to take a job in the carnival to play the part of a wild man from a distant island. In the words of carnival hawker Clem Hoatley:“You pick up a guy and he ain’t a geek—he’s a drunk. A bottle-a-day booze fool. So you tell him like this: ‘I got a little job for you. It’s a temporary job. We got to get a new geek. So until we do you’ll put on the geek outfit and fake it.’ You tell him, ‘You don’t have to do nothing. You’ll have a razor blade in your hand and when you pick up the chicken you give it a nick with the blade and then you make like you’re drinking the blood. Same with rats.’The geek gets used to this routine until he’s told that he’s not doing a good enough job and you’ll have to replace him with a professional. Terrified at the thought of having to do without his booze, he’s desperate to do what he can to keep this going. ‘You give him time to think it over, while you’re talking. Then throw in the chicken. He’ll geek.”Stan is introduced to the performers at the carny. There is the mind-reader Zeena and her alcoholic husband Pete, who provides her clues from under the stage and is saved from full geekdom by having the love of Zeena and the continuance of their act to keep him going. Whether he realizes it or not, Zeena will occasionally have a dalliance on the side, with the latest one being Stan.There’s Molly, the young, beautiful teen who performs as Madam Electra, sitting in an electric chair and getting thousands of volts of electricity firing through her which she survives. Stan is obviously drawn to her as one who is closer to his age than Zeena but Molly also has a fierce protector in Bruno. What he lacks in brains he makes up for in heft and muscles. He is the strong man of the act. He serves as a giant guard dog for Molly and will be a fierce obstacle to get around until Molly tells him his protection isn’t necessary with Stan.For a while, Stan takes over as Zeena’s assistant when Pete is too drunk to do it himself. He wins over the crowd as well as the carny acts with his handling of a sheriff who threatens to close down the carnival, sensing the man’s secrets and telling them back to him. Everyone is baffled as to how he does it and Molly’s interest in him grows.Then there is a setback when Stan accidentally (?) gives Pete wood alcohol to drink, just to keep him from raving and begging for a drink, which kills him. He worries that he has screwed his chances with the carny but everyone believes him. Fortuitously, this paves the way for him to be Zeena’s permanent assistant. He knows that Zeena is a very astute observer of people’s behavior to be so effective at discerning their secrets but the carnival will only ever reach a certain level of success.Stan believes he can take the spook readings to another level and persuades Molly to leave the carnival and be his assistant. She is very ambivalent and afraid of leaving her friends. To which Stan responds:‘The crowd believes we can read minds. All right. They believe it when I tell them that ‘the lawsuit’s going to come out okay.’ Isn’t it better to give them something to hope for? What does a regular preacher do every Sunday? Only all he does is promise. We’ll do more than promise. We’ll give ‘em proof.’The analogy with the preacher is particularly apt. Stan gets his ordination certificate which gives him the license to call himself Reverend. He makes the full transition into spiritualism, convincing desperate believers that he can communicate with the dead. He preys upon the desperation and fears of susceptible believers.He is on an upward climb until he encounters Dr. Lilith Ritter, a psychologist who is a slightly different sort of con. She sees right through Stan’s act but tells him she can advise him on how to improve it. For one thing, she can steer him to some very wealthy clients of hers that will pay extremely good money to be convinced that they can communicate with their dearly departed. Finally, she leads him to his biggest catch: millionaire industrialist Ezra Grindle, a man who built his empire on the backs of others and had no qualms about stabbing friends in the back to climb to the top.Molly feels increasingly sidelined once Stan spends time with Lilith, a diabolical temptress who takes possession of his body and his spirit. The experience with Grindle turns out as disastrously as one could predict because Grindle is as ruthless as he is powerful.I won’t go into any more detail with the plot other than to say that it follows a rise and fall arc. Gresham had done years of research into psychoanalysis, spiritualism and carnivals. The book is structured into chapters named after the trump cards of the tarot, the Major Arcana, and reading the titles of the chapters for anyone familiar with tarot readings will reveal the direction the story is taking. The prose style also becomes progressively more disjointed as Stan’s simultaneous descent into megalomania and alcoholism becomes a hallucinogenic stream of consciousness.Stanford Carlisle’s descent reflects his creator’s tortured life. Gresham was a hopeless alcoholic who had his only commercial success with ‘Nightmare Alley’. He lost most of the money as quickly as he had earned it. Married three times, the second wife, Joy Davidman, mother of his two sons, divorced him and shortly afterward settled in England where she married author C.S. Lewis.Stan is indeed a surrogate for Gresham. This is illustrated by a strange letter, written by Gresham in 1959, where he wrote: “Stan is the author”. He finally succeeded in killing himself with an overdose of pills in 1962. In lieu of a suicide note, he had already written an extended explication of his character and motives with this spiritual autobiography.I’m typically gratified reading NYRB titles. I had a few reservations about this one, however. Certainly, there’s a lot to like, especially the writing, which evokes the seamier side of American life extremely well. But the plot was less compelling, especially in the later chapters. The striving main character, Stan Carlisle, seemed unduly blind to his surroundings at times, making dubious choices.Tarot provides the thematic backbone of the book, with one card the title of each chapter. I don’t know much about tarot, but it’s interesting that Gresham has his characters explain the grift of it all. The story begins in a traveling circus where Carlisle learns the tricks of the trade, seeming all the while a little out of place. With soothsaying front and center from the outset, the reader can’t help but be mindful of foreshadowing.There’s a tension throughout between the reality of life and the grifts the characters conjure. The book provides signposts that amount to dramatic irony, while the characters struggle mightily to hold their constructs together. Resolution comes when the two things meet.The writing here, again, is exemplary. As I think about it now, I’m almost inclined to bump the rating up a star. A quick primer on tarot beforehand probably would have helped me appreciate the thematic twists more appropriately. Either way, it’s a worthwhile read if not quite up to other NYRB titles I’ve read.This novel was very controversial when it was first published and was abridged to change its words and syntax. A wonderful view of the lower rungs of American society viewed from a carnie’s perspective.This book grabs you at the beginning and doesn’t let go. I hated that it had to end. One man’s struggle to make sense of life and how to get through it with something and someone of his own. Though not always honest, the characters in this book truly come to life to leave you on both sides of the carnival curtain. A must read for certain.William Lindsay Gresham wrote Nightmare Alley before I was born. It’s a fascinating dark noir classic and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read it. The characters are so well drawn, especially Stanton Carlisle, a carny worker who uses people and is always looking to make a killing with his next scam. Stanton had a traumatic childhood. I felt some sympathy for him despite his despicable acts.The writing is wonderful, it depicts the time period perfectly. And we get inside Stanton’s head with stream of consciousness narratives. It’s a bizarre story that I couldn’t put down. Now I want to see the movie, both of them.I watched and loved both movie versions. They made me curious about the source material and the author. The excellent introduction by Nick Toches answered my questions about the author and the book provided much needed depth and shading to the characters. So glad I read this!For those who like their noir very dark this book certainly delivers. Set in the world of the American carnivals it follows the rise and fall of a sideshow magician with an unrelenting bleakness. Gresham creates a world of life on the margins and the people who inhabit it. It is gloriously written by someone who knows how to paint with broad strokes yet be totally authentic. The language and subject matters are surprisingly strong for novels of this period and once read never forgotten. After reading what has gone on before the last sentence is incredibly chilling. I am glad I discovered it as I am sure you will be.Can't wait to get the dvdA slightly bizarre and thought provoking book. I mostly read this for research but found it both disturbing and enjoyable. I guessed the very ending, but it was a satisfying way for the story to finish in any case.If no stars were available as a rating, I'd go there. Over 50 continuous years of reading---including all "noir" fiction of any significance, and a large part of the NY Review Classics Collection---I haven't come across such a wasteland of navel-gazing trash.Just cracking into it. Beautiful description of Molly coming of age and finding herself in the carny world. Can't wait to see where the story goes. Excited to read the source material for the new re-adaptation by Guillermo Del Toro for his next feature starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Does one need any more incentive than that!?