{"product_id":"the-big-clock-isbn-9781590171813","title":"The Big Clock","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA classic of American noir, part murder mystery and part black comedy, set in dark corners of corporate New York City. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGeorge Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking, none-too-scrupulous writer for a  New York media conglomerate that bears a striking resemblance to Time, Inc. in the  heyday of Henry Luce. One day, before heading home to his wife in the suburbs, Stroud  has a drink with Pauline, the beautiful girlfriend of his boss, Earl Janoth. Things  happen. The next day Stroud escorts Pauline home, leaving her off at the corner just  as Janoth returns from a trip. The day after that, Pauline is found murdered in her  apartment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJanoth knows there was one witness to his entry into Pauline’s apartment  on the night of the murder; he knows that man must have been the man Pauline was  with before he got back; but he doesn’t know who he was. Janoth badly wants to get  his hands on that man, and he picks one of his most trusted employees to track him  down: George Stroud, who else?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow does a man escape from himself? No book has ever  dramatized that question to more perfect effect than \u003ci\u003eThe Big Clock\u003c\/i\u003e, a masterpiece  of American noir.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"That rare noir masterwork that somehow both keeps you in suspense and unmoors you with its underlying fatalism.” —NPR\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A ruthless vision of corporate conformity and middle-class discontent.\" —\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"The Big Clock\u003c\/i\u003e, Kenneth Fearing's brilliant study in noir, is 60 years old and looks  better all the time. There is no such thing as progress in literature, and as much  as we pursue the latest thing, novelty is no advantage in a novel. \u003ci\u003eThe Big Clock\u003c\/i\u003e provides the proof. . . . Fearing's intricate portrait of murder and the corporate mentality  couldn't feel more current . . . Fearing's taut, relaxed fiction is even better, deservedly  a classic in its depiction of the corporate man at his most basic and disloyal.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Mr. Fearing's short and continuously entertaining novel may  be classified as a whodunit in reverse—plus a certain social comment that may be  taken painlessly, along with the whirligig action. . . . The texture of his plot is stretched  tight as a drum—and he maintains the tautness artfully until the final page . . . . If  you enjoy top-drawer detective fiction . . . we can recommend this one with no reservations  whatsoever.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"I have not developed the habit of reading thrillers,  but I have read enough of them to know that from now on Mr. Fearing is my man.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe  New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Not since Elliot Paul began to play fast and loose with the austere  conventions of the murder-mystery story in \u003ci\u003eHugger-Mugger in the Louvre\u003c\/i\u003e have we encountered  a writer who treated those principles so cavalierly as does Kenneth Fearing in \u003ci\u003eThe  Big Clock\u003c\/i\u003e. In the end he makes the punishment fit the crime, all right, but before  that his main concern has been to make the whole show a source of scandalous merriment. . . . At  a venture one might say that \u003ci\u003eThe Big Clock\u003c\/i\u003e is somewhat closer to the style of the  surrealists than to that of Conan Doyle, but it should be added that the whole is  overlaid with the familiar lacquer of the hard-boiled school. . . . The best part of the  book . . . is the man-hunt, which is conducted by the man who is being hunted, with all  the resources of Janoth Enterprises behind him and all the aplomb in the world.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe  New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Mr. Fearing, poet and novelist, must now also be labeled a master  of the tour de force. He has taken one of those tricky situations which always appeal  to the short story writer and the mystery novelist and made it into an almost believable  metropolitan melodrama. Even Agatha Christie with her penchant for difficult plot  structure could have done no better with the material at hand—and I do not intend  that as faint praise. . . . You probably won't find a better thriller this year.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe  Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"It will be some time before chill-hungry clients meet again so  rare a compound of irony, satire, and icy-fingered narrative.\" —\u003ci\u003eWeekly Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Not only does the brittle style support the characters' attitudes but also the  psychological chase scene, in which George strives to elude his pursuers, is suspenseful  until the end . . . a master at psychological suspense.\" —\u003ci\u003eDictionary of Literary Biography \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKENNETH FEARING\u003c\/b\u003e (1902–1961) was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Voted wittiest boy and  class pessimist in high school, he moved to New York City after graduating from the  University of Wisconsin. He published several well received volumes of poetry in  addition to his novels, including \u003ci\u003eAngel Arms\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDead Reckoning\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eStranger at Coney  Island and other poems\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eThe Big Clock\u003c\/i\u003e was included in \u003ci\u003eThe Library of America's Crime  Novels: American Noir of the 30s and 40s\u003c\/i\u003e. The novel has been adapted into two films,  \u003ci\u003eThe Big Clock\u003c\/i\u003e (1948) and \u003ci\u003eNo Way Out\u003c\/i\u003e (1987).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNICHOLAS CHRISTOPHER\u003c\/b\u003e is the author  of five novels: \u003ci\u003eThe Soloist, Veronica, A Trip to the Stars, Franklin  Flyer\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003eThe Bestiary\u003c\/i\u003e; several books of poetry, including \u003ci\u003eCrossing  the Equator: New \u0026amp; Selected Poems\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e1972-2004;\u003c\/i\u003e and a nonfiction book, \u003ci\u003eSomewhere in  the Night:  Film Noir \u0026amp; the American City\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a Professor in the School  of the  Arts at Columbia University.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233628369125,"sku":"NP9781590171813","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590171813.jpg?v=1767738365","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-big-clock-isbn-9781590171813","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}