Like the work of Dashiell Hammett, this stunning 1935 character-driven noir novel bears the minimalist stamp of a true Hemingway disciple. More about how criminals live between their acts of violence and theft, the novel is a clear precursor to modern literary crime noir like Barry Gifford's "Wild at Heart." Maybe best of all, Anderson here did a phenomenal job of capturing the sights, sounds and idioms of 1930s.
When three small-time country gangsters break jail, they return to the only life they know-small-town bank robbing. When Bowie, the youngest of them, falls in love wit Keechie, one of the older gangster's cousins, it becomes a classic tale of love with nowhere to hide and no hope of reprieve. Originally published in 1937.
