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RARA-AVIS: Thompson, Cain & Influence
BaxDeal said,
"Likewise Jim Thompson has undergone a critical resurgence owing in no small
part to Hollywood's rediscovery of him. He's done some good work, but a lot
of hack stuff. For my money, he's similar to, but not nearly as good as
James M. Cain. DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE were
both written in the same year and stand as templates for the modern noir
tale."
My agent, the venerable Al Hart, who in another age was Ian Fleming's
editor, roomed at Princeton with Jim Thomson's younger brother, and worked
intermittently with JT after his graduation on various projects. According
to Al, JT was bedeviled by financial problems as well as booze. He would
meticulously craft the first hundred pages of a story, submit it to the
publisher, get an advance, then try to finish the book as quickly as
possible and get to work on another story before the advance ran out. This,
I think, might be one of the reasons for the sometimes inconsistent quality
of his books.
BaxDeal's conclusion, however, which dismisses Thomson in favor of Cain,
both as writer and influence on the modern noir tale, needs countering.
Although Thomson was not as consistent as Cain, his best novels certainly
stand as high in the canon as Cain's, and his blend of dark humor, suspense
and sexual perversion has influenced Ellroy among others, though his
sensibility is perhaps best reflected in film-makers like David Lynch,
Quentin Tarrentino and the Coen brothers. I recently re-read THE KILLER
INSIDE ME back to back with a stunning little first person noir narrative
by Nabokov, DESPAIR. THE KILLER INSIDE ME didn't suffer much in comparison
- cruder, certainly, but more harrowing.
And before Hollywood rediscovered him, he was lionized by the French, as
witnessed by the film, "Coup de Torchon," though Etienne Borgers might know
more about this. I also recall that Ellroy wrote about Thomson in a few of
the introductions to the Black Lizard reissues, though here in Prague, I
can't seize upon the books and document this as fact.
Regarding the assertion that AMERICAN TABLOID is the greatest crime novel
ever written, well, that's another opinion and another post.
Robert M. Eversz
dedalus@terminal.cz
SHOOTING ELVIS
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