Stripper is one of those books/stories whose cover you look at and jump in with low expectations.  They used to call it trash fiction.  One of those thin paperbacks you bought in the back of variety store and felt guilty as you coughed up the ten cents from a cashier who reminded you of your grandfather.  Most of them rate a 2/5 stars if that.  Not Stripper.  Robert Silverberg has told a tale that captures the genre to perfection and then some.  Diana is a stripper/call girl who works at a club in Philadelphia for an organized crime syndicate.  She dances and then hooks up with, well, just about anyone:  customers, bosses, and bosses' bosses.  Therein lies the trouble and quite a turn paging plot.  The end is quite a shocker.  

 

David Goodis: Shoot The Piano Player

 

     David Goodis specializes in one genre: losers. And he does it very well. His novels are basically the same but each is unique if that is possible. The plots center around Port Richmond, a white working class area of Philadelphia that time has left behind. Bars, rowhouses, and a string of sad stories each the same but different in its own way. If you like your coffee black, your characters honest, and English written in simple prose, Goodis hits all the markers.

LOVE THIEF

 

BE FOREWARNED!!!!!

 

BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love Gone Bad