The Writer in The Gutter : Kent Harrington - LAST SEEN -Out March 2021

The Writer in The Gutter : Kent Harrington - LAST SEEN -Out March 2021: Drops March 23, 2021 Kent Harrington is a 4th generation San Franciscan, born to an Irish-Jewish father and Guatemalan mother. His early edu...

Kent Harrington - LAST SEEN -Out March 2021

Drops March 23, 2021

Kent Harrington is a 4th generation San Franciscan, born to an Irish-Jewish father and Guatemalan mother. His early education was spent at the Palo Alto Military Academy, where he was sent at an early age. He attended San Francisco State University and received a degree in Spanish Literature. After living both in Spain and Latin America, he returned to the Bay Area and began his career as a novelist supporting himself as a teacher, carpenter, factory worker and life insurance salesman.

His first published work was the well-received noir thriller Dark Ride published in 1997. Booklist’s review said: “This is as noir as it gets.” His follow-up noir thriller Dia De Los Muertos is now considered a modern crime classic. Amazon’s editorial review says: “If ‘American noir’ were in the dictionary, you might find Kent Harrington’s picture in place of the definition.”

Other works include Red Jungle, set in Guatemala, and The Good Physician. Both novels were compared to Graham Greene and John le Carré’s work. Red Jungle was selected as one of the “10 Best Crime Novels” of the year by Booklist.

Harrington is the author of nine novels. The latest is Last Ferry Home. He lives in Northern California with his wife.

The Writer in The Gutter : Remembering the death of David Goodis - January 7th

The Writer in The Gutter : Remembering the death of David Goodis - January 7th:  Death: January 7th, 1967      While the lights flickered and blazed people were weeping,
laughing, screaming and sighing, loving and hating...

Remembering the death of David Goodis - January 7th

 Death: January 7th, 1967

     While the lights flickered and blazed people were weeping,
laughing, screaming and sighing, loving and hating.  In a hundred
 years these people would be gone and the lights would be gone.  But
 there would be new lights and there would be new people.  The same
story would go on.  It had been going on for hundreds of thousands of
 years.
           

It was the story told of people in cities, on farms, in
 hills and in battlefields.  They were good, they were bad, they were 
good again, and before they knew it they had been or what they had 
done.  They might have gone through a lifetime without telling a lie,
or they might have existed for twenty-three years and then gone on a 
killing spree and murdered five women and been electrocuted. 

It was 
all over, this show, and someone else was just beginning it someplace 
else.
  Everybody passed through it, kings and beggars, rats and
 elephants.  When it was all over there was the body still, with the 
eyes open or the eye closed.  That didn't matter either.  The eyes did
 not see anything.  It was really all over and nothing could be done
 about it......
           

There had always been a lot of talk about this Heaven and 
Hell business.  Well, the wise guys could laugh all they wanted to but it wasn't a bad idea.  The chances were that it was just that, a
lot of talk.  But it wasn't a bad idea.


RETREAT FROM OBLIVION, Dutton, 1939, Pages 152-153

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