Taking a sideways noir detour was 1977's Dreaming Of Babylon by eccentric author (and I mean that in the good way), Richard Brautigan. I read almost all of Brautigan's books back in the 70s, and they're still sitting on the shelf, so it was pretty much a natural to pull out this private eye pastiche for a re-read at some point in my crime fiction crawl. It's a rather odd book, with equal parts of parody, elegy and nihilism, as its narrator -- a hopelessly dim private eye named C. Card -- drifts through an eventful, yet pointless day, never even coming close to solving the absurd case which unfolds around him. Not that the case doesn't come to a conclusion, but it happens offstage, just beyond his (and our) earshot. Where does Babylon fit in? Card has a narcoleptic addiction to daydreams of heroic adventures in a pulpy B-picture version of ancient Babylon. The book is an incredibly fast read -- I zipped through it in two short sittings. The prose is so simple, it threw me off balance, like some kind of simple-minded put-on. But it accumulates a strange effect, perhaps not noticable until after you've finished. Odd.
One of my fave bks. This guy wrote well. His stuff is certainly compulsive, but also refreshing. He's no Shakespeare, but hey!, who wants Shakespeare for light reading!!!!
His idea of a mayonaise-jar library was brilliant- publish & be damned!