Book Review: Who Walk In Darkness By Chandler Brossard

This is a book review of Who Walk In Darkness by Chandler Brossard which was first published in 1952 and re-printed by Open Road Media on 9 June 2015. 

Chandler Brossard (1922-1993) was an American novelist, editor, playwright and poet. Born in Idaho, he grew up in Washington DC, and was laid to rest in New York. Over the course of a 40 year career he wrote or edited over 17 books. Since 2000, three of his novels have been re-printed, including this one.

This book was considered by many as the first Beat novel and is an underground classic.

Set in the 1950s you follow the day to day life of Blake and his friends as he takes you to restaurants, bars, music gigs, and live fight events across New York City.

The writing style is simple and easy to follow, almost like you're reading someone's diary in it's simplicity and straight forward descriptions of exactly what they're doing, eating, drinking, saying.

I liked the rawness and honesty from the writer and the other characters involved in Blake's life. One of the characters Henry is meant to be based on Anatole Broyard a well known New York Times book reviewer and essayist.

I found the places Blake and his friends ventured to and the descriptions of life in New York City really interesting, from the dive bars to a sleepy sea side town.

For it's time this book was one of the most controversial novels of mid century America. But for this year 2015 it is quite a tame read.

I recommend this book to beat novel enthusiasts and fans of Ham On Rye by Charles Bukowski.

I give this book 3 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Who Walk In Darkness can be purchased from various sellers listed here

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Open Road Media to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter


[Image via Open Road Media]