Tough Guys Don't Dance (novel)

Tough Guys Don't Dance (1984) is a noir thriller and murder mystery novel by American writer, Norman Mailer,^[1] reminiscent of the works of Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane. The book was filmed in 1987.

Synopsis

Set in Provincetown on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, the protagonist is Tim Madden, a former bartender and drug runner, currently struggling to make a living as a writer. Waking one morning with a hangover, a new tattoo, and no memory of the previous night, Madden soon discovers that the passenger seat of his car is covered in blood and the head of an attractive blonde woman has been deposited in the woods near his house, at the exact place he stashes his cannabis harvest.

With all the evidence for the murder pointing towards him, Madden elects to solve the mystery himself, which brings him into contact with one shady character after another, including corrupt police, criminals, and washed-up boxers. Even a dodgy medium enters the fray as the weary hero staggers through a succession of dangerous and unforeseen situations.^[2][3]

Film adaptation

Mailer adapted his novel for film in 1987 and also chose to direct. The resulting film, starring Ryan O'Neal and Isabella Rossellini, was not a critical or commercial success.^[4]

References

Works by Norman Mailer Fiction The Naked and the Dead Barbary Shore The Deer Park An American Dream The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer Why Are We in Vietnam? A Transit to Narcissus The Executioner's Song Of Women and Their Elegance Ancient Evenings Tough Guys Don't Dance Harlot's Ghost The Gospel According to the Son The Castle in the Forest Non-fiction "The White Negro" Advertisements for Myself The Presidential Papers Cannibals and Christians The Bullfight The Armies of the Night The Idol and the Octopus Miami and the Siege of Chicago Of a Fire on the Moon King of the Hill The Prisoner of Sex Existential Errands St. George and The Godfather The Faith of Graffiti Genius and Lust Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots Pieces and Pontifications The Spooky Art Why Are We At War? Biography Marilyn: A Biography The Fight Oswald's Tale Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man Film Beyond the Law Wild 90 Maidstone Tough Guys Don't Dance Teleplays The Executioner's Song American Tragedy Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story Other Strawhead (play) The Deer Park (play) Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters) (poetry) Some Honorable Men (anthology) The Time of Our Time (anthology) Modest Gifts (poems and drawings) The Big Empty (dialogues) On God (conversation) Film and TV adaptations The Naked and the Dead An American Dream Marilyn: The Untold Story The Time of Her Time Category