Suspects by David Thomson, Signed (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Reprint. UK. Very good in very good dust jacket. SIGNED by the author on the title page (signature only). UK reprint. Dust jacket has minor edgewear and scratching. 274 p. Audience: General/trade. Book has mild shelfwear to the bottoms of the boards and the cap and base of the spine, slightly bumped corners. Some toning to the pageblock and interior of the dust jacket. Previous owner's gift inscription is on the obverse of the frontispiece. Thomson is a renown British film critic and historian and Mel Novikoff Award-winning author of "Have You Seen.? ": A Personal Introduction to 1, 000 Films' and 'How to Watch a Movie'. Rare signed. Where possible, all books come with dust jacket in a clear protective plastic sleeve, sealed in a ziplock bag, wrapped in bubble wrap, shipped in a box. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine dj. Illustrated by (dj photo) Walker Evans (illustrator). First American Edition. [a tight, unread copy, with both book and jacket in almost perfect condition, the only blemish being a slight age-toning to the jacket flaps]. INSCRIBED to Academy Award-winning screenwriter Daniel Taradash "with all good wishes" and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper. Thomson, a film critic/historian/biographer, imagines the off-screen lives of characters in dozens of classic movies and weaves them all into a single "plot," an impressive feat of meta-fiction that positively revels in unexpected and sometimes outrageous connections and cross-connections. The book's central characters -- or at least the frequent focal point of what is essentially a kaleidoscopic narrative -- are George and Mary Bailey (the characters played by Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in Frank Capra's over-exposed classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE), but an amazingly far-flung number of characters are woven into the narrative, from Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson in CHINATOWN) and Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro in TAXI DRIVER) to more obscure (but no less beloved by movie fans) figures as Max von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim in SUNSET BLVD.), Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles in TOUCH OF EVIL), Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr, the murderous neighbor of Jimmy Stewart in REAR WINDOW), etc. One of the real kicks of the book is how the author forges links or liaisons between the characters -- such as Noah Cross and Norma Desmond having been lovers in the 1920s, or that the Richard Gere character in AMERICAN GIGOLO was the illegitimate son of Norma and Joe Gillis. In lesser hands, all this contrivance might have seemed terribly forced, but because of Thomson's encyclopedic knowledge of movies and stars (his "Biographical Dictionary of Film" is an indispensible reference work), it all kind of makes sense, although the book is not without its surreal aspects. (But to be honest, if you have to ask who Noah Cross and Norma Desmond are, this book probably isn't for you.) Signed copies are uncommon. Signed by Author.