Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


I first met Pauline Delos at one of those substantial parties Earl Janoth like to give every two or three months…

The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing

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The opening of this noir book is so wrapped up in 1940s publishing jargon that I thought I was reading a weird science fiction book at first. We begin in a giant highrise where our first (of several) narrators in hiding in the clock tower of the building. He’s witnessed a murder (the owner of the publishing firm did it) and he’s hiding. The rest of the book takes place along several lines of narration as the publisher tries to figure out who saw it, […]

Tick Tock

The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing

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When crime magazine editor George Stroud sees his boss and his boss’s girlfriend heading into her apartment together, he’s careful not to be seen. That’s because he’s just dropping off the woman in question after having his own tryst with her. Though he keeps out of sight well enough to keep his boss, publishing magnate Earl Janoth, from identifying him, Janoth is able to tell that his girlfriend has just been with another man. When they later get into an argument about that and Janoth […]

Tick Tock

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This book was written in 1946, and for some reason has received renewed attention. It is a short dark novel. Fearing was a poet for several years, but wrote pulp fiction, worked as a journalist and in public relations for money. He was also a serious alcoholic. As his alcoholism progressed he couldn’t hold on to money or his writing.  When this book was made into a film he earned quite a bit of money, but lost it all quickly. I haven’t seen the movie, […]



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