The Expendable Man
The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes is a revised edition published by New York Review of Books on July 3, 2012, featuring 264 pages in English. This novel follows Hugh Denismore, a young doctor who, while driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, grapples with unsettling memories and societal expectations. As he encounters a hitchhiking girl and a group of teenagers, his seemingly privileged life takes a dark turn when he becomes the prime suspect in her murder.
Readers will find a narrative that delves into themes of privilege, societal perceptions, and the complexities of human behavior. Hughes, recognized for her contributions to mid-century noir, crafts a suspenseful tale that challenges the conventions of the wrong-man narrative. The story unfolds against a backdrop of urban and street life, exploring the intersections of race and class while maintaining a gripping mystery. This edition invites readers to engage with the text’s deeper implications as they navigate the unfolding drama.
Official synopsis Publisher
“It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later?
Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes.
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