Corpus of Joe Bailey (The Arbor House library of contemporary Americana)

by Oakley Hall

Book by Hall, Oakley M This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877956537
• ISBN13: 9780877956532
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Arbor House
• Length: 479 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Corpus Of Joe Bailey

This is Hall's breakrough novel, and there are few stronger. After a few years of writing excellent thrillers under the names of Jason Manor and O.M.Hall,he wrote a masterpiece. Corpus Of Joe Bailey is a key novel for all who were young during the pre & post WW11 years, for those whose parents were there, for all those who love good uncompromising fiction. The book is a haunting marvel. He went on to write the classic Warlock, but Bailey resonates more and more as the years go by.

It's a major literary crime that this is out of print

CORPUS OF JOE BAILEY has been called many things--The Great San Diego Novel--The Great California Novel--then there are those of us who believe it is a very strong candidate for The Great American Novel. Anybody who has ever felt insecure (e.g., everybody) can relate to its hero, Joe Bailey. I'm not going to give a plot synopsis--go to a second-hand bookstore and READ it. Nobody's ever been able to put it down once they begin with book one chapter one page one: "JOE". Joe's struggles with his insecurities are played out against the background of the booming twenties, the depression, the war, postwar America--it's a huge chunk of life. I am honored to own a 1955 paperback of this novel. I had the privilege, in the fall of 1998, at a PEN banquette in Los Angeles, of having that copy signed by the author, Oakley Hall, just before he was given a lifetime achievement award. Then Oakley was gracious enough to give me a blurb for my own first novel, just published, One of the Guys. But my book cannot hope to compare to the panoramic CORPUS. Why isn't this novel being taught in the schools? There's an effort underway to get U. of Cal. Press to reprint it. And then there is the constant gossip and speculation: Who WAS Con Robinson? Did she really die in an auto accident? Did her sister really kill herself on the train from Los Angeles? What was it about these women that drove men of Oakley Hall's generation out of their minds with passion? The diehard fans continue to tour San Diego in their Joe Bailey van, drinking champagne as they go from site to site of the famous novel. I myself had the privilege, circa 1985, of looking up from my barstool in the Lamplighter on University in San Diego--one of the bars in the book--and recognizing a jukebox which Oakley had described in JB. It was one of the most glorious moments of my six-year drinking career. Will future generations be denied experiences like these as city planners haphazardly tear down Joe Bailey landmarks, and as publishers refuse to reprint the novel? No, not as long as we true believers carry this great novel in our hearts everywhere. Thank you, Oakley. Thank you, Joe. And thank YOU, Con, you hot dead babe, wherever you are. The back of the 1955 paperback says it all, a motto for almost every relationship I've ever had: "They cannot love each other fully, yet neither can they leave each other alone." Try to top THAT, you mediocre postmodern writers, most of whom probably don't even know what a "corpus" IS! Fans out there? Write to me!

A neglected major novel of 1950s America.

An important novel about post-WWII America, especially California. Vivid characters, deeply involving plot and a marvelous sense of place and time. A real time capsule. Also, the best book yet with a site-specific San Diego setting.