Books by Jim Thompson
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review 1: Maybe it's the era this was written. Maybe it's that I'm too far removed from the time in which this gritty tale takes place. I don't know. The writing is punchy and solid. The story engaging. However, the babes are babes and a cigarette in every mouth thing got old. Reminded me ...
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review 1: (Think of me as a cantankerous old man - you may be right. But then:)A murder MYSTERY ... this is not: the first death - a suicide which, a few pages later, and most predictably,turns out not to be a suicide - does not occur until page 168 of this 187-page novel; the second murde...
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review 1: I wouldn't want to say I don't much care for Nick Corey, but I wouldn't say I like him none neither. Why, I guess he just makes you not want to trust him and his sorry way of carrying out God's work, sheriffin' the good 1280 people of Pottsville. Well, I'd say he's got him a pa...
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review 1: It's pretty hard not to admire the work of Jim Thompson. He made an entire career out of the absolute mastery of the unreliable narrator. In fact, it's so unreliable, that it's almost as if some of the lack of unreliability seeps off into the reader. How much can you really tru...
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review 1: Took a while to get going, and I wanted to quit several times during those 40 pages, but I kept on, because I've tried to read a couple other Thompson novels and couldn't finish them, and I wanted to at least finish one of his novels, given all the hype surrounding this guy. This...
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review 1: Another great read by Mr. Thompson. I know I'm a complete sell out for anything this guy wrote but still,it doesn't change the fact that it becomes a bit more obvious every single time that Thompson is the master of Pulp/Pop fiction.I mean seriously, who can introduce a talking d...
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review 1: THE KILL-OFF. (1957). Jim Thompson. ***.I keep bumping into books by Thompson that I haven’t read, so it’s time to get organized and make a clean sweep. This title was new to me. Aside from the premises of the plot, it’s not among Thompson’s best work. It is set in the smal...
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review 1: Pretty lighthearted by Jim Thompson's standards.Some magnificent turns of phrase / dialogue most of which is very funny indeed.Some of the writing reminded me very much of when Bret Easton Ellis turns his hand to comedy. (wonder if he's ever read this book?)The likeable rogue m...
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review 1: Roughneck, the follow-up to Thompson's Bad Boy (1953), picks up where the first chunk of his autobiography left off by tracing the author's path from hard-scrabble day laborer to paid writer. And just like Bad Boy, Roughneck takes an anecdotal approach, with each chapter acting a...
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review 1: A powerful book, but very low on my list of Thompson's books. READ "THE GRIFTERS" OR "THE GETAWAY" if you want to catch one of his more enjoyable. This book induces skin-crawling needle penetrating full body MISERY throughout. Frank Dillon a door-to-door Salesman and Housewif...
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review 1: It's really hard to like Nick Corey, High Sherriff of Potts County, but you almost have to admire how he maneuvers his way through life's little difficulties. This book was nothing like I expected, and the many unexpected turns were very entertaining. It's a dark story, though, a...
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review 1: Kid Collins is one of the great Thompson characters, dripping with the existential angst that is so prevalent in his novels (the Kid just wants it to be over near the end because no good can come of it, speaking about life and death and not the caper he is apparently addressing)....
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review 1: Sólo un asesinato es la tercera novela que escribió Thompson, pero fue la primera de género negro de su carrera, la primera, y es apabullante como teje una trama tan retorcida, cruel y triste en solo su tercera novela. Es verdad que ya en esa época había escrito muchísimo; relato...
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review 1: "South Of Heaven"…."Another name for Hell!" I've read every Jim Thompson book, pretty much liked them all very much but South of Heaven is by far my most favorite and a book I've read years ago and and have now reread. Just as good the second time around. Highly recommended!"In ...
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review 1: Thompson is a man who sees the world as a series of near misses. He views every moment in life as a step closer to a happiness and goodness that will, ultimately, be taken from you before it comes to fruition. The human condition, it seems to Thompson, is one in which we are al...