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dantastic's review
3.0
Soon to be married Prescott Marshall goes on a bender and winds up sleeping with a young lady that isn't his fiancee. She starts squeezing him for money afterwards and on the morning of his wedding, Prescott snaps! He spends the rest of his life running, but you can't run from Fright!
Actually, the name of the book should have been Guilt, not Fright. The entire story is about Prescott's guilt leading to paranoia and eventually drunken insanity. There's defintely a Hitchcockian vibe to the whole affair. It also reminds me of Poe's A Telltale Heart to an extent. It's a pretty gripping yarn.
So why only a three? It's a pretty dated book. It takes place in 1917 or thereabouts and Majorie, Prescott's wife, is the stereotype submissive housewife that lives to please her man. She's a doormat for most of their marriage. Other than that, it was pretty good, if not a little predictable, although I didn't see the epilogue coming.
Actually, the name of the book should have been Guilt, not Fright. The entire story is about Prescott's guilt leading to paranoia and eventually drunken insanity. There's defintely a Hitchcockian vibe to the whole affair. It also reminds me of Poe's A Telltale Heart to an extent. It's a pretty gripping yarn.
So why only a three? It's a pretty dated book. It takes place in 1917 or thereabouts and Majorie, Prescott's wife, is the stereotype submissive housewife that lives to please her man. She's a doormat for most of their marriage. Other than that, it was pretty good, if not a little predictable, although I didn't see the epilogue coming.
thomasroche's review
5.0
This one seems to have gotten crappy reviews from other readers, but I thought it was brilliant. This is the first Cornell Woolrich I've read unless you count the Rear Window screenplay, and I thought it was really disturbing, sort of the written equivalent of Hitchcock. I felt very tense throughout and actually gave myself a cramp in my back because I was sitting so awkwardly in the chair, freaking out as I read it. That absolutely never happens; most books I read at emotional arms-length. This I was totally engaged by and it actually scared me.
I can only assume the bad reviews come from the weirdly gothic esthetic of the language, which makes it very different than the typical Hard Case Crime books and a mite difficult to identify with the narrator, in maybe the same way Lovecraft's narrators can be alienating to the reader. I found that brilliant, though, the ending completely caught me off guard.
Loved it.
I can only assume the bad reviews come from the weirdly gothic esthetic of the language, which makes it very different than the typical Hard Case Crime books and a mite difficult to identify with the narrator, in maybe the same way Lovecraft's narrators can be alienating to the reader. I found that brilliant, though, the ending completely caught me off guard.
Loved it.
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