The Way We Die Now by Charles WillefordMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pulp Upward Mobility
Of the Hoke Moseley series, this is the most determinedly Pulp of them all and returns to the roots of the genre.
The sense of research, investigation, criminal pursuit have been sidelined to serve Hoke's fall from grace and his middle class redemption (which is the ultimate condemnation, a very personal and punishing hell within the gritty realm of Pulp).
An example of this arises out of his daughter's own emergence into bitter adulthood:
"Suddenly Aileen began to cry. Tears, unchecked, streamed down her cheeks.
"'What's the matter? Why are you crying?
"'Be-because," she said finally, still sobbing, 'because you can't!'"
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