BOOK

David Goodis, Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s (Library of America, $35, out Mar. 29). All but forgotten today save for the films made out of his books–François Truffaut turned Down There into Shoot the Piano Player–Goodis was a pulp novelist of nightmarish compulsion, and his work, whether or not it merits enshrinement by the Library of America, remains immensely readable. If you’ve been missing Richard Stark more than usually of late, this collection, which opens with Dark Passage, the 1946 novel on which the Bogart-Bacall thriller was based, will ease your pain (TT).