Jim Thompson wrote a lot of crap and a handful of masterpieces, all of them, of either persuasion, slim and (mostly) compulsively readable volumes. In general, I find The Killer Inside Me overrated, The Getaway underrated, and A Hell of a Woman the best of the bunch. The misogyny is perfectly unpleasant, the language strong and straightforward and direct from the vernacular, and the plotting meticulous enough to ensure that the atomization of the ending was deliberate, and hardly the result of an exhausted writer who couldn't think of anything else to do with his story. Despite the ubiquitous labels, Thompson's work cannot fairly be called "suspense," "thriller," "mystery," or any similar genre. "Post-Depression American Psychosis"—yeah, there, that's the ticket. "Depression" referring to both the personal/emotional and the historical/economic disasters. We shouldn't, after all, forget that Thompson was a native of Oklahoma who died in Los Angeles.In case it's not at the library.
Pop. 1280. Fantastic Thompson.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's definitely one of his best.
ReplyDeletei agree with you both. Pop 1280 is great.
ReplyDeleteThanks all for your comments. As long as we're on Thompson, other novels of his that I like are After Dark, My Sweet; The Nothing Man; and Savage Night. The Grifters is pretty good too. Also, Robert Polito's biography of Thompson, Savage Art.
ReplyDeletei've just finished "savage night" few days ago. the ending is simply incredible - you're right saying that terms like mistery or suspence are not enough to describe his books
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