I am an unrequited fan of Jim Thompson’s novels. If he’s not my favorite writer of all time, he’s one of them. I usually read books for good, well-plotted stories with richly developed characters. Rarely do I read them for metaphysics. Such is not the case with Thompson’s work. Famously dubbed the “dimestore Dostoevsky”, Thompson’s unrelenting nihilism and views of the corruption of human nature weirdly fit my own despite my cheery demeanor. I believe we’re all mere steps away from chaos and those who […]
Anyone who deprived her of something she wanted deserved what he got.
Going into this post, I am not sure how many novels this will include. But I will review each of them in turn. My audiobook service has a bunch of his novels, and I am about the move and they are so light and short, it could be a lot. But I am starting with…. The Grifters – 1963 – 3 Stars Yes, this is the one the movie is based on. But I guess since that movie came out in 1990, who knows […]
The Long Con
This is going to be pretty brief because I read this novel and then went on a two-week vacation, so it’s not exactly fresh in my mind. Jim Thompson is an acknowledged master of noir fiction, and this novel, filmed in 1990 starring John Cusack and Anjelica Huston, is perhaps his best known. The book centers on Roy Dillon, a young con artist who works the short grifts for quick money but has nevertheless built up quite a stash doing so. However, a con gone […]