M KornbluthA front man for a tinhorn gambling syndicate a woman who had never been touched a dissatisfied husband a lesbian and all of them strangers Then the snow came thick as mud cold cruel snow and the swift streamliner could not break through the icy wall Strangers they were one minute before but now while the storm howled outside and passions raged within they were lovers killers savages The Naked StormKornbluth is a well known science fiction writer He wrote this pulp under a pseudonym Unfortunately it s a mess jumping without focus from one character s story to another s The Naked Storm Oh so very hard to rate It s utterly hilarious as I said at the halfway point but it wasn t meant to be I actually liked the writing it s really tight and packs an enormous amount into a fairly short book. The cultural view of 1950 s america is quite entertaining and boy do these characters have real lives There s everything from sculpture an inside look at a news wire operation carpets a fairly deep if brief theological discussion that manages to cover Catholicism Luther and Calvinism in three paragraphs no really Also a mixed race out of wedlock baby a junkie military wife a bad boy who finds redemption after literally getting kicked upside the head and then hearing a random bible verse And a lot of alcohol Really a lot. Oh and the predatory Lesbian ob caps who is written without a single redeeming feature unless you count that she s slim and doesn t look her age Anyway mark this one down as a guilty pleasure I love these old pulp novels and this is definitely one of the most fun to read that I ve come across The Naked Storm

One of many pseudonyms for C