James Bevan se encuentra sumido en una profunda depresión. Es un hombre de honor, casi un caballero andante, pero el mundo que le rodea lo empuja hacia el desastre, y su único refugio es el alcohol. En un último intento de salir de esa ciénaga, Bevan viaja con su esposa a Jamaica para salvar un matrimonio que se ha convertido en un auténtico calvario. Sin embargo, en ese Descenso a los infiernos encontrará de pronto un objetivo para el honor, un motivo para volver a empezar. Pero antes, deberá matar a un hombre...

Not really Crime, perhaps I should add a Noir category. Anyhow, entertaining read, though a bit dated / far-fetched (those detriments never really bother me too much though). Couple vacays in Jamaica. She's a cold fish because of a childhood trauma / attack from family gardener and so cannot bear her husband's desires. So, of course he collapses into himself, begins drinking to excess, establishes a nice NYC paid paramour, until wife finds out, so it all collapses and they have to flee to Jamaica. He continues his comically over the top self destructive binge... ultimately looking for trouble in the worst part of Kingston where he accidentally kills a man who was trying to mug him. Blackmail ensues - though our anti-hero couldn't care less. Still, the poor cold wife has become enamored of a string, virile poster boy at the hotel, causing her to wonder about her weird attraction to aggressive men (all a bit too obvious and over the top for me). Finally and happily she realizes she must go to her man and save his bacon in the dark, mean alleys of Kingston and it kind of works out and perhaps they will get over their cold marriage lot. Loved the self destructive tear of the husband and the repressed erotic tension of the wife. More, please. ( )

This was just exceptional. An utterly gripping tale of despair and determination. Beautifully written and yet so grimy and dark it makes you itch. ( )

James and Cora Bevan's nine year marriage is spiraling round the drain. In what they both know is a parting gesture, James takes a month off work and they fly to a resort in Kingston, Jamaica. While James gets embarrassingly drunk every day, he ruminates on why his marriage fell apart, the drinking, and his affair with his prostitute girlfriend that Cora finally caught onto. Cora thinks about her frigidness that drove her husband away and she finds a fellow guest who falls for her.
James' drinking leads him to the bad part of town where he is the intended victim of a mugging, and it throws him into a web of problems with the city's criminals.
I liked the story as it focused on the crumbling marriage and James' reliance on huge, huge amounts of alcohol, as it was almost noir. But the focus shifts midway into the Blevans being blackmailed too easily over a crime James didn't commit. Gritty but not overly realistic. ( )

There was a reason that this book wasn't reprinted for over fifty years. While Goodis is a writer of superior skills, this title does not approach the quality of other Goodis works such as Shoot the Piano Player, Dark Passage, or Cassidy's Girl. ( )