This is another random used-book store find, a hardboiled thriller of 1940s vintage, about a man who escapes from a two-year sojourn in a horrible Spanish prison, where he was tormented for unspecified information by a person of shuffling gait that he called "the Wobblefoot." Back in New York, while looking into the mysterious death of a childhood friend, Louie, he realizes that his European nemeses have followed him. There are also a number of good-looking "dames" in the story, all of them associated somehow with his potential enemies: are they in on it, too, or do they need his protection?I probably would never have picked this up if it weren't for my quirky personal quest to find as many books as I can with a bird in the title, but it wasn't bad. It's not on the caliber of, say, Raymond Chandler, but fans of the genre should enjoy it. Apparently there was a movie based on it, too.
I love the movie, and I really wanted to love the book, but I can't. Where the movie is a bit convoluted the book is downright confusing. I still don't grasp the why the Babylon cups were so important. At least in the film, it was the battle flags. Kit and Content were very well defined, but the rest where rather a mystery. Just how did they all connect. I don't think I'm that bad of a reader! Although I'm quite familiar with the Spanish Civil War and the International Brigade, I'm afraid the modern reader may be lost in what is basically a period piece. Again, the movie was much more clear. Too bad. Dorothy B Hughes missed the boat on this one.
What do You think about The Fallen Sparrow (1988)?
The Fallen Sparrow is more sophisticated than The So Blue Marble, though it is also an international spy story set in NYC. This one deepens the dark quite a bit. There are murders, and a McGuffin (some priceless goblets) but the protagonist is a man who was imprisoned and tortured for two years by Spanish Fascists. The gang after the goblets are a bunch of émigrés, Nazis posing as the opposite. Again New York is rendered in all its beauty, snow in streetlights, cafes and bars and night clubs, cabs and subways. Hughes’ sense of place is unerring. The protagonist comes from a wealthy family, but PTSD has ground him down to a man out for vengeance. The suspense is quite intense and the voices of the novel range from upper-class icy, to gangster/cop hard boiled.
—Jon Frankel
