MacDonald had been called a Calvinist. He certainly preaches the old time religion in this story. It becomes the salvation from the law of the jungle. The predators get their comeuppance.
The characters are well drawn. It did take me a while to get them straight in my mind.
The Korean war death at the beginning underlines the role of luck and chance. A psychological thriller, the psychology of the fifties. Different anxieties. An interesting array of characters. MacDonald must have gotten them from life and personal experience. Some of the morality must reflect his upbringing, and the characters coming in part from war time experiences.
The title jungle is the survival of the fittest. Hope is in those trying to make something better of their lives. They redeem the jungle. ( )

I remain a big fan of JDM's pulp fiction titles published before he began writing his Travis McGee books. The Neon Jungle (Random House reissued it in 2014 which is the version I read) is his 1950s juvenile delinquents novel. I love the way he draws his characters. He also uses a Mike Hammer reference with one of the characters. Great stuff. ( )

Very solid MacDonald yarn with, as usual, a few repellant parts. Again the idea appears that the only way to get some women to be good wives is to show them who's boss by hitting them. (That's what they're waiting for you see, to know you're a man and not a mouse!)

In any case, the story revolves around a market in a not-so-good part of town, where the owner lives with his new, much younger wife, his son and his shrewish wife, his teenage daughter, and the wife, Bonny, of his son who died in the war. They were only married a short time and she was a tramp (that he rescued)!

And on top of that there are a couple of ex-cons living there that the friendly parole officer has brought to them. And a butcher who is scared to death of sex. Lurking about is a very tough cop who doesn't think any ex-con can be reformed.

In typical MacDonald fashion, the story is told from multiple viewpoints, but not on a chapter-by-chapter basis as in some of his books. He just sort of floats around inhabiting whatever voice should speak next. He doesn't insert long authorial speeches about morals or real estate developers as he tends to do in his later books, but the morals part still comes out loud and clear through the voices of these characters, particularly the parole officer.

What sets this book apart from most of the other non-Travis McGee MacDonalds I have read is the grittiness of it all. There is a well done atmosphere of drugs and violence that pervades it all and the threads of the story are well woven to its violent conclusion. I won't consider that a spoiler since the cover of my edition quotes the New York Times: "Culminates in one of the most explosive murder scenes in recent fiction."

Like other of his early works (The Damned, Dead Low Tide, End of the Night), this book is more tightly plotted and serious than most of his many later novels. Recommended! ( )

Very solid MacDonald yarn with, as usual, a few repellant parts. Again the idea appears that the only way to get some women to be good wives is to show them who's boss by hitting them. (That's what they're waiting for you see, to know you're a man and not a mouse!)

In any case, the story revolves around a market in a not-so-good part of town, where the owner lives with his new, much younger wife, his son and his shrewish wife, his teenage daughter, and the wife, Bonny, of his son who died in the war. They were only married a short time and she was a tramp (that he rescued)!

And on top of that there are a couple of ex-cons living there that the friendly parole officer has brought to them. And a butcher who is scared to death of sex. Lurking about is a very tough cop who doesn't think any ex-con can be reformed and that

In typical MacDonald fashion, the story is told from multiple viewpoints, but not on a chapter-by-chapter basis as in some of his books. He just sort of floats around inhabiting whatever voice should speak next. He doesn't insert long authorial speeches about morals or real estate developers as he tends to do in his later books, but the morals part still comes out loud and clear through the voices of these characters, particularly the parole officer.

What sets this book apart from most of the other non-Travis McGee MacDonald's I have read is the grittiness of it all. There is a well done atmosphere of drugs and violence that pervades it all and the threads of the story are well woven to its violent conclusion. I won't consider that a spoiler since the cover of my edition quotes the New York Times: "Culminates in one of the most explosive murder scenes in recent fiction."

Like other of his early works (The Damned, Dead Low Tide, End of the Night), this book is more tightly plotted and serious than most of his many later novels. Recommended! ( )