Detour: An Extraordinary Tale

(n.p.): O'Bryan House Publishers. Fine. (c.2005). 1st American paperback edition. Softcover. [nice clean as-new book, with no discernible wear]. Trade PB Reprint of the novel that served as the basis for the renowned 1945 film of the same title, which has justifiably been called "the greatest B- movie ever made." Remarkably, there had never been an American paperback edition until this printing, despite the enduring cult status of the movie and its director, Edgar Ulmer. This printing has the whiff of a pirated edition (with a rather strange disclaimer that "this work is published in accordance with the principles of U.S. copyright law [and] no infringement on the rights of the author or original publisher or their successors is intended"), but it did do the service of bringing the book (the original edition of which had become very difficult to find, and very expensive when it was) back into print, and making it possible for admirers of Ulmer's film to make a proper assessment of the heavy debt it owed to the novel. Plot, incident, character, dialogue, even its low-rent fatalism is all there on the page, and with no disrespect intended to Ulmer, a compelling case can be made for Goldsmith (who also wrote the screenplay) as a full co-auteur of the movie. The novel is narrated in alternating chapters by Alexander Roth ("Al Roberts" in the film) and his girlfriend, Sue Harvey. Roth's is the "on the road" story familiar to viewers of the movie; Sue's is the "Hollywood" story, which the film jettisons almost completely. Sue, in fact, comes across as a more complex and interesting character than Al (her comments on the "jerkwater suburb" of Hollywood are scathing), and there's also a sexual frankness in the novel that is only fitfully present in the movie. Fans of noir bad girls, though, will be happy to note that "Vera" is just as scary in the book as in the film. There is a special introduction written for this edition, and while it sketches in a little detail about the author's life and career, it's a pretty sloppily-done affair -- including two references to him (in just two pages!) as "Goldman." .