The Long Wait

By Mickey Spillane

Book Overview

Book by Spillane, Mickey This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451136349
• ISBN13: 9780451136343
• Release Date: May 1952
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

another hard-boiled, old-school yarn of mayhem and sex ...

One was going to die. One was going to get both arms broken. One will be whipped to within an inch of her life. That was a promise he vowed to keep. Five years ago, Johnny McBride was accused of embezzlement and murder, and was forced to skip town. Now someone claiming to be McBride is back in Lyncastle, looking to right the wrongs done him. But is it really Johnny? Or is it someone else playing a vicious game of chicken with Lenny Servo, local mob boss and the man who runs Lyncastle behind the scenes. Mickey Spillane uses his well-honed stripped-down prose to inject no-holds-barred suspense and an atmosphere of immediacy into The Long Wait. Written in 1951, this book noir is still as thrilling as ever. His anti-hero, bent on evening the score for his recently demised best friend, is suffering from memory loss and yet is still game enough to ably bluff, connive and bully his way thru the suspicious denizens of Lyncastle, a once ordinary town become a gangster's paradise, replete with gambling casinos and other joints of ill repute. As McBride inexorably closes in on the truth of his frame-up, the stakes are raised, the violence from both sides is cranked up another notch, and our two-fisted, trigger-happy, take-no-prisoners amnesiac must rely on forgotten skills to survive and mete out his own blurry brand of justice. Spillane writes like he doesn't give a damn, and I mean that in a good sense. His response to his literary critics was "Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar." For his era, Spillane's books contained more than their share of violence and sexual content. I enjoy his lead character immensely. The Long Wait's hero is rude, abrasive and isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty, whether it's belting a hoodlum or three in the gut, roughing up a cop or grabbing a kiss from a flirtatious dame. This guy does and says things that we all wish we could get away with in public - as when a fat woman pokes our main man on the bus and tells him, "If you don't mind, I'd like that window shut." Our guy's response? "I'd like your mouth shut too." He's a riot. I saw the denouement coming a mile away but, to complete the cliche, the ride was worth getting there. The villains are your classic lowlife thugs, the women are all sexy and willing to be persuaded, the action is often and ferocious. Oboy, this Johnny McBride fella'll give Mike Hammer a run for his money. For those interested, The Long Wait was made into a movie in 1954, starring Anthony Quinn and Charles Coburn.

WAITING FOR ANOTHER BY SPILLANE WAS ALWAYS TOO LONG

After he had penned his first novel, I, The Jury, in only nine days, Spillane sat down at the typewriter to quickly turn out some six more Hammer novels. This particular thriller featuring Mike Hammer sold 3 million copies in one week. Spillane had become a phenomenon. Today Mickey Spillane is 85-years-old, and acclaimed around the globe for inventing the hard-hitting, hard-boiled protagonist who is a compelling mix of sex and sharp shooting. It's hard to believe this many years have gone by for the Brooklyn born Spillane. He's outlasted and out sold many of his contemporaries, and when last heard from was still hard at work. Perhaps those of us who love to read don't take time to thank the writers who have given us so many hours of pleasure. I certainly fall into that category, so a big hats off to Mickey Spillane and gratitude for the wealth of reading pleasure he's given so many.

Another maniacal offering from Mickey Spillane

The Long Wait is not a part of Mickey Spillane's classic and infamous Mike Hammer series. Instead, its the story of an amnesiac who invades a corrupt small town in order to avenge the death of a friend. Unsure of who he even is, our "hero" finds himself trapped in a brutal world of violent criminals, evil rich men, and sexy femme fatales -- in short, every classic element of pulp fiction is included in this often ludicrous yet strangely intriguing book. Obviously, anyone who begins a Spillane novel looking for a cohesive, logical plot is already starting off on the wrong foot. However, the plot of the Long Wait defies any and all logic even by Spillane's standards. However, Spillane so credibly creates this absurd world of his that only the most analytical of readers couldn't be swept up into it. Make no mistake about it, this is not a book written for "our time." The violence is brutal, the portrayal of women is defiantly sexist, and we never forget that our hero is really a bit of a jerk. And, though it might not be fashionable to admit, there's a great release to reading Spillane's delightfully amoral prose. He might not be describing a life we'd ever chose to live but that doesn't mean his world isn't occasionally fun to visit.Even amongst afficianados of pulp fiction, Mickey Spillane doesn't ever quite seem to get all the credit that's due to him. Maybe its because, unlike Raymond Chandler, academia has never embraced him. Unlike Dashiell Hammett, Spillane has never had any pretensions beyond being a pulp writer. Along with a healthy dose of unfashionable right-wing politics, most of Spillane's books carry an undercurrent of casual sadism. Whereas most pulp heroes did what they had to do in order to survive in a newly cynical, postwar world, Spillane's heroes always seemed to be violent for the sake of being violent. Spillane once bragged that he wrote most of his books in two days and never wasted any time with second drafts. Certainly, the fractured, make-it-up-as-you-go-along-feel to the Long Wait would seem to validate that point. But for what Spillane sacrifices in craft, he makes up for in just sheer force. This book is a crazed, maniacal trip into the imagination of a very entertaining madman. This is a book with absolutely no socially redeeming value and in the end, we're all the better for it.