Order LOVE YOU TO A PULP here
Statistics say that when somebody tells you they love you, that person instantly becomes more likely to kill you than anyone else.
Some pundits say that the difference between a hardboiled novel and noir fiction is that the first features people upholding the law and the latter features the perpetrators. I like to think the most interesting of them ride a fine line in between these two definition, though. LOVE YOU TO A PULP, by C.S DeWildt channels the ghost of Jim Thompson (and very hammered and cynical Thompson, I might add) and Harry Crews in order to create something deep, subtle and intense. It's a novel that makes you feel like you're doing something wrong by reading it. Not exactly a breakout mainstream novel, but a budding cult hit for sure.
LOVE YOU TO A PULP is built on parallel narratives. The first story is about glue-addict private eye Neil Chambers, commissioned to find Helen Jenkins, the daughter of Brownsville's local pharmacist, and bring her home. The second story is about dispossessed teenager Neil, brought up hard by his father. This Neil is not addicted to anything, but he's a sensitive youth looking to find love and acceptance in a violent and forgotten hellhole. Neil went down the path of self-destruction for several years and this time, redemption might lie a little further than in a young woman's eyes.
Substance abuse is just about the one of the worst cliché in hardboiled fiction. It's a capital sin, if you will. LOVE YOU TO A PULP uses that cliché to its advantage and creates something new with it. The idea of a glue sniffing PI might seem gimmicky, but it's not the case here. C.S DeWildt creates a depth to his character using the parallel narratives that wouldn't have been possible with straight storytelling. Each chapter you read about adolescent Neil helps you understand addicted PI Neil a little better and vice-versa. I thought the teenage chapters were unnecessary detailed and bulky at times (they are not the main mystery of the novel, at least they weren't to me), but the concept itself was brilliant and engaging.
LOVE YOU TO A PULP is built on parallel narratives. The first story is about glue-addict private eye Neil Chambers, commissioned to find Helen Jenkins, the daughter of Brownsville's local pharmacist, and bring her home. The second story is about dispossessed teenager Neil, brought up hard by his father. This Neil is not addicted to anything, but he's a sensitive youth looking to find love and acceptance in a violent and forgotten hellhole. Neil went down the path of self-destruction for several years and this time, redemption might lie a little further than in a young woman's eyes.
Substance abuse is just about the one of the worst cliché in hardboiled fiction. It's a capital sin, if you will. LOVE YOU TO A PULP uses that cliché to its advantage and creates something new with it. The idea of a glue sniffing PI might seem gimmicky, but it's not the case here. C.S DeWildt creates a depth to his character using the parallel narratives that wouldn't have been possible with straight storytelling. Each chapter you read about adolescent Neil helps you understand addicted PI Neil a little better and vice-versa. I thought the teenage chapters were unnecessary detailed and bulky at times (they are not the main mystery of the novel, at least they weren't to me), but the concept itself was brilliant and engaging.
Jenkins moved past Neil without invite and began to absently wipe at the blood, and tears, and snot with the sleeve of his jacket, smearing the wet red all over his face.
"Neil. I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do. It's Helen. Isn't it always Helen?''
Neil nodded, vaguely understood where the conversation was going. Helene was Neil's daughter, a hell raiser from the age of five. Her mama had died years back and it had been Helen and Jenkins for longer than it had been the three of them.
''What'd she do? She do that to your face?''
I wouldn't call the prose of C.S DeWildt pretty, but there's a raw and magnetic charm to it. A bareness that exposes the violence and the urgency of the moment. There's this beautiful bare knuckle boxing scene early in the novel that really exposes DeWildt's writing ability. He's usually more restrained, but in this scene, Neil's courage and fears intertwine and reveal what he's made of. Fighting reveals people's character and DeWildt uses this lengthy fighting scene early on to reveal there's a lot more to Neil than his addiction, even if he visibly find comfort in it. C.S DeWildt has a tremendous sense of observation and keen intuitions about human nature that makes his writing fun to read.
LOVE YOU TO A PULP is a unique spin off a classic theme. It's a cold and brutal detective story that slaloms around cliché with great skill. There aren't many ways left to write an engaging and original detective novel, but C.S DeWildt found one. I had a good time with LOVE YOU TO A PULP. I thought the teenage chapters choked the life out of the main mystery at times, but it was a compromise I accepted because the dual narrative concept offered such an engaging angle on the storyline. LOVE YOU TO A PULP is a violent and brooding novel, but it has a beating heart and a tremendous protagonist. A solid hardboiled novel.
LOVE YOU TO A PULP is a unique spin off a classic theme. It's a cold and brutal detective story that slaloms around cliché with great skill. There aren't many ways left to write an engaging and original detective novel, but C.S DeWildt found one. I had a good time with LOVE YOU TO A PULP. I thought the teenage chapters choked the life out of the main mystery at times, but it was a compromise I accepted because the dual narrative concept offered such an engaging angle on the storyline. LOVE YOU TO A PULP is a violent and brooding novel, but it has a beating heart and a tremendous protagonist. A solid hardboiled novel.
