Noir Review: Nightmare Alley (1946) by William Lindsay Gresham

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Nightmare Alley is a remarkable piece of noir fiction. It is different from the classic noir I've been reading in that it isn't about the sort of criminal we see in crime fiction (murder, heists, etc). But it is definitely noir in its themes — doomed protagonist driven by greed, tormented, hurtling toward existential crises. It is now one of my favorite noir classics and should be read by anyone who appreciates the genre.

It was a bit too raw as written and according to Nick Tosches' introduction, censored for 30 years. This edition is not so you read ssociety dames with the clap, bankers that take it up the ass instead of society dames with a dose, bankers that have fishy eyes. I admit, fishy eyes has a certain appeal as a euphemism

The organization of the book is interesting. Instead of chapters it is organized by the 22 cards of the Major Arcana in a tarot deck. The book starts off with Card 1 The Fool. I kept a web site open with meaning of the cards as I read and Gresham matched the card to events. I'm not well versed in tarot reading but it seemed to me that sometimes it was the meaning of the card reversed. You might find it distracting but I had fun reading about the card then reading the chapter.

So if it isn't classic noir crime fiction, what is Nightmare Alley? It is the story of the rise and fall of Stanton (Stan) Carlisle who rises from carnival sideshow magician to influential spiritualist before his inevitable collapses. The first third of the book is set in a carnival where we first meet Stan who working in a carnival's Ten-in-One show. Stan has set his sights on bigger things and has taken up with an older performer, madam Zeena, a mentalist/fortune teller.He marvels at her skill at cold readings and want to learn. Zeena and her husband Pete were once in the big time where they had an elaborate code that enabled them to perform a convincing mentalist act. Pete lost his nerve, was unable to perform, turned to drink, and they landed in the carnival circuit.

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Stan is sexually inexperienced but Zeena likes him and he becomes her bed partner. When Stan learns that Pete wrote the codes down in a book, he talks Zeena into giving it to him.

Stan has an opportunity to test his cold reading skills when the law arrives to shut down the show. Stan is able to assess the sheriff's fears, anxieties, and longings and defuses the situation sending the sheriff away feeling at peace. With his skills validated Stan takes off with Molly, another carny and heads for the city and fame.

Stan realizes that the big money is in spiritualism and rises to prominence preying on desperate for closure with the departed.

But Stan in increasingly tormented by nightmares and when he becomes a patient of a psychotherapist, his life takes a turn for the worse.

This summary doesn't do justice to Nightmare because I don't want to provide too many spoiler details. You really need to read Gresham's words to appreciate the richness of his prose.

Stan's life goes through four stages—carny, mentalist, spiritualist, fall—but I think the first, carny, is the one I most enjoyed. The carnival setting also neatly bookends the story and delivers the story's devastating noirness. The depictions of the carnival life are very well written and younger readers may learn that geek didn't always mean someone socially inept and obsessed with technology or minute details. Hint: it involved chickens. There is a particularly evocative part at the beginning where we get to see the rubes queuing up for the show through the eyes of the performers. It ain't flattering.

Here is an example of Gresham's powerful descriptions. He is describing the carnival:

Dust when it was dry. Mud when it was rainy. Swearing, steaming, sweating, scheming, bribing, bellowing, cheating, the carny went its way. It came like a pillar of fire by night, bringing excitement and new things into the drowsy towns—lights and noise and the chance to win an Indian blanket, to ride on the ferris wheel, to see the wild man who fondles those rep-tiles as a mother would fondle her babes. Then it vanished in the night, leaving toe trodden grass of the field and the debris of popcorn boxes and rusting tin ice-cream spoons to show where it had been.

It wouldn't be noir if there wasn't darkness and there is true darkness. The mildest is the cynicism Stan has toward the people is exploiting—Fear in the key to human nature.  When it gets dark it heads into existential nihilism. Stan muses;

How helpless they all looked in the ugliness of sleep. A third of life spend unconscious and corpselike. And some, the great majority, stumbled through their waking hours scarcely more awake, helpless in the face of destiny. They stumbled down a dark alley toward their deaths. They sent exploring feelers into the light and met fire and writhed back again into the darkness of their blind groping

The alley image is a recurring, and effective, one that haunts Stan:

Ever since he was a kid Stan had had the dream. He was running down a dark alley, the buildings vacant and black and menacing on either side. Far down at the end of it a light burned; but there was something behind him, close behind him, getting closer until he woke up trembling and never reached the light. They have it too—a nightmare alley.

Stan gets increasingly unbalanced as he refines his con, finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities. He slips into fevered deleriums. There is indication that he might be bipolar. This leads him to a truely evil physhologist, Dr. Lisith Ritter, who knows how exploit Stan's fears, effectively turning his on con back on him. While the character doesn't occupy a lot of space on the page, when she is there she dominates.

The film version is a very good adaptation of the book although it has to condense events. The ending is softened from the book but the rest is so good that I overlook that bit. Tyrone Power plays Stanton Carlisle and is excellent. His cold reading of the sheriff is wonderful to watch because you can see from his eyes how Stan is reading the sheriff and adjusting his words by how the sheriff reacts. Beautifully done.

Helen Walker expertly plays Dr. Lilith Ritter like she came off the page. Coldly manipulating and eventually gas lighting Stan.,

Joan Blondell plays the aging mentalist Madam Zeena. Interestingly, she actually worked as a circus hand at one point in her career.

I recommend reading the book and watching the film. Both are excellent.

Here are a couple of reviews of Nightmare Alley where you'll also find out more about Gresham

The Book You Have to Read: "Nightmare Alley," by William Lindsay Gresham
The Grifters and Con Artists of Nightmare Alley
Beautiful, Monstrous, Delicios Mayhem: Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham