Sunday Story Ratings #53: It's a Hard World

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

It's a Hard World by Andrew Vachss

Originally published 1987 (could not identify initial publication), and Born Bad (1994); this edition 1995

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Collected in: Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories (ed. Bill Pronzini & Jack Adrian)

 

PG

(D, L)

Drug Use {PG} {Tobacco}

Coarse Language {G}

Themes {M} {Crime}

 

Representations

Gender:

Mostly internal to male protagonist's head, significant characters male, except woman operating desk at airport boarding.

Sex:

A non-event is noted in the implicit context that women might desire to attract the gaze of men. Otherwise irrelevant.

Race & Ethnicity:

Unmentioned; assuming characters white US citizens.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

Appearance-altering plastic surgery off-screen, otherwise unmentioned.

 

Awards

None found

 

Notes

Very short, sharp piece featuring the sacrifice of apparently innocent if obnoxious bystander by the anonymous protagonist.

Sunday Story Ratings #54: Junior Jackson's Parable

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Junior Jackson's Parable by James Hannah

Originally published 1988 in Desperate Measures (published by Southern Methodist University Press), this edition 1995

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Collected in: Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories (ed. Bill Pronzini & Jack Adrian)

 

M

Not recommended for persons under 15 years of age, but no legal restrictions

(L, D, S, T, V)

Frequent Coarse Language {M}

Drug References {M} {Alcohol, tobacco, unspecified pills}

Sexual References {PG}

Themes {Crime, Drug Dependency}

Violence {M}

 

Representations

Gender:

Some women in background, most prominently as protagonist's mother and wife, who seems mainly a passive locus of trouble.

Sex:

Story centred on a heterosexual triangle. Prison rape a danger.

Race & Ethnicity:

Characters presumed white, on basis of protagonist's prejudiced upbringing about 'Arabs, Jews [and] nigras'.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

Protagonist suffered a chronic leg injury as a teen. Protagonist's employer also disabled. Backstory character suffered damage from acid of exploding battery. Protagonist's father disabled by workplace injury; protagonist's mother suffers from arthritis.

 

Awards

None found

 

Text

Dreary and depressing the whole way through. Poor kid gets injured working with cars in his teens, dishonourably discharged from the US navy, his wife does drugs and spends all her time with her convicted murderer ex-boyfriend and, when he goes to kill the guy, chickens out at the last moment and accidentally kills him with a ricochet anyway. Almost walks anyway, until a moment of hope is turned against him.