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Sto caricando le informazioni... The Brick Foxhole (1945)di Richard Brooks
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Before Richard Brooks became one of Hollywood's grittiest directors and screenwriters, he wrote a handful of novels, one of which (this one) became the great motion picture CROSSFIRE, a fine film noir which also was a landmark in the movies' treatment of anti-semitism. Brooks's novel differs considerably from the film in a number of ways, most prominently in that the victim of the central murder around which the story revolves is a homosexual in the book rather than the Jew of the movie. Brooks's novel is darker even than the movie, which is pretty dark on its own. In the book, there is a greater opportunity to explore the psyche of each character, and Brooks does so brilliantly through a technique I've not encountered before in quite this approach. Much of the story is told through the thoughts of the characters, often switching from one character's thoughts to another's and back on a single page. While murder is at the heart of the story, Brooks's interest expands beyond the melodramatics of the crime to the hearts of the people caught up in the events, with special attention paid to the crushing loneliness, ennui, and seeming meaninglessness of the lives of wartime soldiers in safe but dull stateside billets. The brick foxhole of the title describes the difficulty of serving in safety and civilized surroundings, but without the comforts of either family or the sensation that one participates in the great crusade underway in combat zones around the world. Drudgery, empty tasks, and a yearning to be where "real" soldiers are fighting a "real" war deplete the emotional reserves of several of the characters in this truly fine novel, and loneliness, rumor, and suspicion eat at the souls of the principals. Brooks is also deeply attentive to the prejudices and hate that fester among men, especially men whom the war has forced into more socially diverse situations and surroundings than they are familiar or comfortable with. Brooks writes with splendid poetry, even when the thoughts he explores are base or crude or cruel. Yet, ultimately, his story reveals a great faith in man's better angels and resolves with a thrilling suggestion that goodness, honor, loyalty, and faith in one's fellows will conquer the darkness. This is a splendid, all-too-short novel. ( ) nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
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New York Times Bestseller: This "shocking" murder mystery addresses homophobia in the military during World War II (Richard Wright, author of Native Son). The men in the barracks, wrenched from the normal pursuits of life, are being molded into warriors in a battle against the "others." Isolated and fearful, they sometimes relieve their frustrations on the most disenfranchised civilians, namely homosexuals. But one weekend, one of them loses control and commits murder. This tale of suspense is also a story ahead of its time, written by a young marine stationed at Quantico who would go on to become an Academy Award-winning director of such films as Elmer Gantry and The Blackboard Jungle. Sinclair Lewis, writing in Esquire, called Richard Brooks "a really important new writer" and The Brick Foxhole was acclaimed in the Saturday Reviewof Literature as "angry, rapid, stream-lined, and beautifully written . . . the best of the new stuff coming out of this war"--though the US Marines threatened the author with court-martial. Eventually, the story was made into the movie Crossfire (with the hate crime in question changed to an act of anti-Semitic rather than antigay violence), which earned Brooks an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture. Today, The Brick Foxhole remains both a twisting thriller and an early landmark of gay-themed fiction. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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