Pick-Up

A Library of America eBook Classic

Fiction & Literature, Crime, Thrillers
Cover of the book Pick-Up by Charles Willeford, Library of America
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Charles Willeford ISBN: 9781598535723
Publisher: Library of America Publication: November 7, 2017
Imprint: Library of America Language: English
Author: Charles Willeford
ISBN: 9781598535723
Publisher: Library of America
Publication: November 7, 2017
Imprint: Library of America
Language: English

First published as an unheralded paperback original, Pick-Up is an authentic underground classic, an explosive bulletin from the urban underbelly of mid-1950s America. It was Charles Willeford’s second novel, after a rough and wandering earlier life that had taken him from Depression-era hobo camps and soup kitchens to wartime battlefields. The unblinking story of two lost and self-destructive drifters—a failed painter working as a counterman in a cheap diner and a woman in flight from domestic violence—trying to find a place for themselves in the back streets of San Francisco, Pick-Up is hardboiled writing at its nihilistic best: Willeford’s preferred title for the book was Until I Am Dead. Its bleak vision of life beyond the edge is haunted by rape, racism, alcoholism, suicide, and inescapable poverty, yet shot through with a tenderness and compassion sustained against all odds in a society offering few breaks to its outcasts and misfits. Pick-Up’s many twists and violent turns culminate in an ending that continues to surprise, confirming it as what critic Woody Haut has called “a  razor-sharp narrative that rips open the genre.”

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

First published as an unheralded paperback original, Pick-Up is an authentic underground classic, an explosive bulletin from the urban underbelly of mid-1950s America. It was Charles Willeford’s second novel, after a rough and wandering earlier life that had taken him from Depression-era hobo camps and soup kitchens to wartime battlefields. The unblinking story of two lost and self-destructive drifters—a failed painter working as a counterman in a cheap diner and a woman in flight from domestic violence—trying to find a place for themselves in the back streets of San Francisco, Pick-Up is hardboiled writing at its nihilistic best: Willeford’s preferred title for the book was Until I Am Dead. Its bleak vision of life beyond the edge is haunted by rape, racism, alcoholism, suicide, and inescapable poverty, yet shot through with a tenderness and compassion sustained against all odds in a society offering few breaks to its outcasts and misfits. Pick-Up’s many twists and violent turns culminate in an ending that continues to surprise, confirming it as what critic Woody Haut has called “a  razor-sharp narrative that rips open the genre.”

More books from Library of America

Cover of the book Louisa May Alcott: Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys (LOA #156) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book Wendell Berry: Essays 1993-2017 (LOA #317) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (LOA #26) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It (LOA #212) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book Slave Narratives (LOA #114) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings (LOA #190) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book Ann Petry: The Street, The Narrows (LOA #314) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book The Watcher by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book The Able McLaughlins by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book H. P. Lovecraft: Tales (LOA #155) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book Jonathan Edwards: Writings from the Great Awakening (LOA #245) by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book The Burglar by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book The State of Music by Charles Willeford
Cover of the book The Civil War: The Third Year Told by Those Who Lived It (LOA #234) by Charles Willeford
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy