A Gypsy Good Time is a 1992 Noir

Noir

Noir is the French word for black. It may refer to:- People :* Noir , Danish Dj & Producer. Owner of Noir Music...

 detective novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Vietnam Veteran

Vietnam veteran

Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...

 Gustav Hasford

Gustav Hasford

Gustav Hasford was an American writer. His semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers was the basis of the film Full Metal Jacket.-Biography:...

 and was the last novel that he completed before his death in 1993 at the age of 45. It is written in the style of classic hardboiled

Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...

 detective fiction, and was poorly received by book critics at the time for making too much use of the cliches of the genre. It never received the same critical recognition that his novels on Vietnam The Short-Timers

The Short-Timers

The Short-Timers is a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by American former Marine Gustav Hasford,about his experience in the Vietnam War. It was later adapted into the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket by Hasford, Michael Herr, and Stanley Kubrick....

and The Phantom Blooper

The Phantom Blooper

The Phantom Blooper is a 1990 novel written by Gustav Hasford, and the sequel to The Short-Timers. It continues to follow James T. "Joker" Davis through his Vietnam odyssey...

did, and is relatively unknown even to followers of the author, it was supposedly based on Hasford's disillusionment with Hollywood that he felt during the production of Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...

.

Plot

Vietnam veteran and Private Investigator

Private investigator

A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...

 Dowdy Lewis Jr struggles with alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

, his time in the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 and his own rapid aging. He meets Yvonna Lablaine, an attractive red-headed outcast from a prominent Hollywood family with whom Lewis falls in love. One day however, after a tumultuous romance Lewis finds Lablaine dying at his door, murdered. He then embarks on a quest involving drug dealers, mobsters and Hollywood moguls in order to find the truth about what happened and to take revenge on those that did it.

Reception

As many negative reviews as it got however there were some positive ones from other prominent authors and filmmakers who deemed the book to be a sleeper hit with a surprisingly accurate and bleak portrait of the modern American movie business.

"This may be the best stuff I've ever read about Hollywood and the movies,
a world as savage and erotic as any jungle war...Gustav Hasford's
voice is unmistakable in American writing."
-Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson

Kent McKay Anderson in Florence, South Carolina, is a retired Major League Baseball infielder.Anderson played for one team during his career, the California Angels . He made his Major League Baseball debut on April 15, 1989, and played his final game on September 6, 1990.-External links:*...

"Hallelujah! At last a new dimension to the crime novel. As if it wasn't
enough to deliver a nifty plot with unique characters, Hasford's A Gypsy Good Time
has something to say--and nobody says it better."
-James B. Harris

James B. Harris

James B. Harris is a film screenwriter, producer and director. He worked with film director Stanley Kubrick as a producer on The Killing, Paths of Glory and Lolita...