---
product_id: 4631083
title: "Nightmare Alley (New York Review Books (Paperback))"
price: "113.81 DT"
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reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/4631083-nightmare-alley-new-york-review-books-paperback
store_origin: TN
region: Tunisia
---

# Nightmare Alley (New York Review Books (Paperback))

**Price:** 113.81 DT
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## Description

Now a major motion picture from Academy Award–winning director Guillermo del Toro and starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Toni Collette Nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best Picture Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him. And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute assistant (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.

Review: Geeks and Cheats - "Ever since he was a kid Stan had had the dream. He was running down a dark alley, the buildings vacant and black and menacing on either side. Far down at the end of it a light burned; but there was something behind him, close behind him, getting closer until he woke up trembling and never reached the light." That something is fear, and Stan Carlisle knows how to avoid it, and how to sell it back to prospective buyers. As a con man, Stan wears many hats: Stan Carlisle. The Great Stanton. Reverend Carlisle. Cashing in is the name of Stan's game, and his world of deception and dishonesty, he is the ultimate shyster. There's an aura of fatalism that resides over Stan Carlisle, seemingly propelling him toward either success or doom at any given moment. However, he meets his match in an unlikely femme fatale, Dr. Lilith Ritter. Nightmare Alley is such a unique and different take on the noir genre. Grotesque, dark and bizarre, it opens at a county fair with locals about to witness the "geek show." Stan, an ambitious employee for the carny, is both captivated and repulsed by the lowly depths of the alcoholic geek. He wonders how one could get to such an awful state. Impressed with the Zeena the mentalist's act, and how she can dupe the crowd, Stan becomes resolved to take up his own act. With Molly, one of the performers, along Stan soon becomes immersed in the world of mentalist acts, psychic readings and spiritualism, looking to gain dough and sell hopes. With effective atmosphere and exceptional prose, Gresham pushes us into the world of the carny, tarot readings, mentalism, deception, set ups, secret codes, phonies and fakes. There's even some Freudian analysis to boot. Despite its bleakness, and despite one of the more ruthless protagonists you'll ever encounter, Nightmare Alley is fascinating and hard to put down, and definitely a treat for noir fans. This edition of the novel has a fascinating introduction by Nick Tosches that gives quite a bit of background for the story as well as the author. Reportedly Gresham found inspiration for the novel while drinking with a companion who told him a bizarre tale about a "geek", an alcoholic who would work and perform bizarre acts at a carnival for booze. Gresham said the story "haunted him" and so, he wanted to tell the story and thus "get rid" of this memory. There's also a fantastic film from 1947 with a very George Clooney-esque Tyrone Power playing Stan Carlisle. The film, while much tamer than the novel, still is quite amazing and worth checking out
Review: carnival of gloom and despair - I found this book very interesting - even though I cannot say it's enjoyable. Reading it was rather unpleasant, to put it mildly. Think Kafka's The Metamorphosis, with people depicted by Gresham being about as attractive as Kafka's insect. But yes, we have to admit, there are very unappetizing things in life, and Gresham is definitely able to describe them with great authenticity. A number of things make this book interesting. First and foremost - it's the language. This book is written in American vernacular of the first half of XX century. Even though I was born much later, one can feel immediately it's the real thing, Gresham has keen ear and ability to put on paper the way people really talk. The book is full of colloquialisms, expressions used on the street by lowlife people, and people in a particular trade (most of the characters are in the show business, carnivals), as well as psychiatric terms (one of the characters is a psychiatrist). Words and expressions you won't find in print frequently, like gonif, ad-libbed (now they'd say winged), etc etc. And it's not just the language: the life itself is captured with lots of details, which makes this book very persuasive. It has a wide variety of characters, from "carny" crowd, vile psychiatrist, an industrialist, duped by "spiritualist" crooks, even one black communist, described, again, very vividly in one chapter. Everyone talks using their very own language: policeman, morgue attendant (what a story!), lady psychiatrist... The book describes in much detail how "mind readers" operate, from cheap town fair crooks "mitt readers" to high level "spiritualists", arranging fraudulent séances where people "meet" their deceased loved ones, cheating the victims of all their possessions. Another side of the book which makes it worth reading is the chance to get a view of the - probably tortured - mind of the author himself. As we learn from the introduction, he was an alcoholic, also he was influenced by teachings of Sigmund Freud which were very much in vogue back then. There's a lot of sexuality in the book, if not very explicit - then at least very much suggested; the prose is dense with sexual longings, trauma and despair. Two main characters, Stan and Molly, both experienced exposure to sexual acts in their childhood, which Gresham describes as traumatic/defining event. Generally, in the nature/nurture dispute, Gresham is, clearly, very much on the nurture side. Life of his heroes is broken, author suggests, because of those childhood experiences. I wonder if Gresham himself suffered something similar as a child. I'll repeat - this book is not pleasant, and I don't find it interesting philosophically, also the characters are rather one-dimensional. That's why I give it 4 stars. The story itself and the construction of this book is good, but main interest is in this being a history of society, language and the way of thinking of people in certain time and place. And this task is performed by the author with great mastery. The introduction, written by Nick Tosches, is also very good and informative - if a bit too short. Gresham's life seems to be very interesting.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #148,659 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #529 in Hard-Boiled Mystery #2,161 in Psychological Fiction (Books) #8,578 in Suspense Thrillers |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 973 Reviews |

## Images

![Nightmare Alley (New York Review Books (Paperback)) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/814KfKlGLlL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Geeks and Cheats
*by F***9 on March 6, 2014*

"Ever since he was a kid Stan had had the dream. He was running down a dark alley, the buildings vacant and black and menacing on either side. Far down at the end of it a light burned; but there was something behind him, close behind him, getting closer until he woke up trembling and never reached the light." That something is fear, and Stan Carlisle knows how to avoid it, and how to sell it back to prospective buyers. As a con man, Stan wears many hats: Stan Carlisle. The Great Stanton. Reverend Carlisle. Cashing in is the name of Stan's game, and his world of deception and dishonesty, he is the ultimate shyster. There's an aura of fatalism that resides over Stan Carlisle, seemingly propelling him toward either success or doom at any given moment. However, he meets his match in an unlikely femme fatale, Dr. Lilith Ritter. Nightmare Alley is such a unique and different take on the noir genre. Grotesque, dark and bizarre, it opens at a county fair with locals about to witness the "geek show." Stan, an ambitious employee for the carny, is both captivated and repulsed by the lowly depths of the alcoholic geek. He wonders how one could get to such an awful state. Impressed with the Zeena the mentalist's act, and how she can dupe the crowd, Stan becomes resolved to take up his own act. With Molly, one of the performers, along Stan soon becomes immersed in the world of mentalist acts, psychic readings and spiritualism, looking to gain dough and sell hopes. With effective atmosphere and exceptional prose, Gresham pushes us into the world of the carny, tarot readings, mentalism, deception, set ups, secret codes, phonies and fakes. There's even some Freudian analysis to boot. Despite its bleakness, and despite one of the more ruthless protagonists you'll ever encounter, Nightmare Alley is fascinating and hard to put down, and definitely a treat for noir fans. This edition of the novel has a fascinating introduction by Nick Tosches that gives quite a bit of background for the story as well as the author. Reportedly Gresham found inspiration for the novel while drinking with a companion who told him a bizarre tale about a "geek", an alcoholic who would work and perform bizarre acts at a carnival for booze. Gresham said the story "haunted him" and so, he wanted to tell the story and thus "get rid" of this memory. There's also a fantastic film from 1947 with a very George Clooney-esque Tyrone Power playing Stan Carlisle. The film, while much tamer than the novel, still is quite amazing and worth checking out

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ carnival of gloom and despair
*by V***S on April 5, 2015*

I found this book very interesting - even though I cannot say it's enjoyable. Reading it was rather unpleasant, to put it mildly. Think Kafka's The Metamorphosis, with people depicted by Gresham being about as attractive as Kafka's insect. But yes, we have to admit, there are very unappetizing things in life, and Gresham is definitely able to describe them with great authenticity. A number of things make this book interesting. First and foremost - it's the language. This book is written in American vernacular of the first half of XX century. Even though I was born much later, one can feel immediately it's the real thing, Gresham has keen ear and ability to put on paper the way people really talk. The book is full of colloquialisms, expressions used on the street by lowlife people, and people in a particular trade (most of the characters are in the show business, carnivals), as well as psychiatric terms (one of the characters is a psychiatrist). Words and expressions you won't find in print frequently, like gonif, ad-libbed (now they'd say winged), etc etc. And it's not just the language: the life itself is captured with lots of details, which makes this book very persuasive. It has a wide variety of characters, from "carny" crowd, vile psychiatrist, an industrialist, duped by "spiritualist" crooks, even one black communist, described, again, very vividly in one chapter. Everyone talks using their very own language: policeman, morgue attendant (what a story!), lady psychiatrist... The book describes in much detail how "mind readers" operate, from cheap town fair crooks "mitt readers" to high level "spiritualists", arranging fraudulent séances where people "meet" their deceased loved ones, cheating the victims of all their possessions. Another side of the book which makes it worth reading is the chance to get a view of the - probably tortured - mind of the author himself. As we learn from the introduction, he was an alcoholic, also he was influenced by teachings of Sigmund Freud which were very much in vogue back then. There's a lot of sexuality in the book, if not very explicit - then at least very much suggested; the prose is dense with sexual longings, trauma and despair. Two main characters, Stan and Molly, both experienced exposure to sexual acts in their childhood, which Gresham describes as traumatic/defining event. Generally, in the nature/nurture dispute, Gresham is, clearly, very much on the nurture side. Life of his heroes is broken, author suggests, because of those childhood experiences. I wonder if Gresham himself suffered something similar as a child. I'll repeat - this book is not pleasant, and I don't find it interesting philosophically, also the characters are rather one-dimensional. That's why I give it 4 stars. The story itself and the construction of this book is good, but main interest is in this being a history of society, language and the way of thinking of people in certain time and place. And this task is performed by the author with great mastery. The introduction, written by Nick Tosches, is also very good and informative - if a bit too short. Gresham's life seems to be very interesting.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Noirest of the Noir
*by G***N on May 18, 2010*

This amazing, grim novel is the ideal noir, in film or literature. If you like the tropes, gestures and sheer style of noir, then you can't go wrong with this book, because they are there in almost every line, every element of plot, especially the long denoument which is both foreseeable and satisfying. This is a great novel of the kind and of the period. If you giggle at the dialogue of "The Big Sleep," then you'll find this book satisfying. If you're a different sort of reader though, who loves the beauty of the dialogue of "The Big Sleep," for whom noir is as much about ideas and a point of view, then you'll find this book a masterpiece. It's easy to call the book cynical, but it's not at all - the main character is cynical, and he both exploits that cynicism and is trapped by it, and his cynicism reflects that found in American society. Noir stories improvise their own sets of morals and values and, if the stories work, those ideas makes sense in the context, and in "Nightmare Alley" they work brilliantly and with great power. The book is as grim as it gets, but the power of Gresham's writing makes it almost relentlessly gripping; his lines and dialogue are excellent, and so is his structure. The pacing is excellent, the characterizations are not just effective but creatively done - these are real people, even the minor figures - and the overall shape, the way Gresham places his chapters, is terrific. His subject and context may be pulpy, but the writing is deeply skillful and without cliché. And what is perhaps most exciting and satisfying is that Gresham goes, without fear and sensationalism, so deeply into the possibilities of human cynicism and depravity, far deeper than even Jim Thompson, and that is what noir is all about. In it's own way, this is a great American novel.

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*Last updated: 2026-09-15*