Pulp English

[Paul Mackin]

Although the economic conditions that  drove the production and  
consumption of pulp fiction have been absent in America for some 60  
years, "pulp English" apparently lives on in the pens of our cousins  
across the sea.

Just after reading jbor's examples from Warlock I  came across  
something in prize winning and short-listed British author (South  
African born but Oxford educated) Justin Cartwright's  _The Promise  
of  Happiness_.

The characters and locale of the novel are mostly English but one  
section involves the U.S.   I'm only in the early pages of the book  
where there is a scene at a restaurant on the grounds of a minimum  
security federal prison  facility in upstate New York where a  
daughter of the upper-middle class English family is being released  
after  serving a sentence for art theft.  The conversation  that set  
my teeth on edge is  between the  releasee's brother and a very nice  
woman working in the restaurant.

"You gonna take her home"

"I am."

"I dunno, but that  gal should never of  bin here. She's an angel."

"I  agree."

"She done it for some feller, leastways that's what  I think."

Me too."

"You look like her. Yes you do. Yessiree, I can see it plain. Same  
eyes and nice smile."

(later the restaurant lady asks the  brother to bring his sister in  
to say goodbye.)

But, hey, I wouldn't blameya if you wanted to lay tracks outta here."