Mike,
I've read all of Thompson, and they're all worth
reading--even Nothing More Than Murder which is a somewhat
clunky James M. Cain- like noir novel. His books fall into
the following categories--psycho noir, standard noir,
literary/crime novels where the hero perserveres, conman
oriented, semi-autobiographical and two early Faulkner-like
novels, Heed the Thunder and Now and on Earth, which are very
good. My favorites of his pure noir, including Pop. 1280
are:
Hell of a Woman, Savage Night, Swell-Looking Babe, The
Getaway (you got to read it again--the ending is just so damn
brilliant) and After Dark, My Sweet. All of these are
must-reads. Hell of a Woman is probably my favorite.
A collection of his shorts in "This World, then the
Fireworks" is also very good, which includes his Mitch
Allison stories which are a lot of fun and "Forever After",
which in my opinion should be taught to every college
creative writing class. What Thompson does in what's probably
less than 2000 words is remarkable. It's as perect a noir
short story as I've ever come across.
I agree with Mark about Coup De Torchon--Pop. 1280 was moved
from West Texas to a french province in Africa, and it works.
While "After Dark, My Sweet" and "The Grifters" are probably
the most faithful Thompson movie adaptations, "Coup De
Torchon" is my favorite Thompson book made into a movie,
while Paths of glory is my favorite Thompson film.
I have an article on Hardluck examining some of Thompson
psycho noir novels at:
http://www.hardluckstories.com/issue1-JimThompson.htm
--Dave Z.
btw. my second novel, Bad Thoughts, is supposed to be out
today. So far it has gotten trashed by Publishers Weekly,
while getting good reviews by Booklist, Library Journal, and
everyone who's reviewed it on the web.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Michael Robison
<miker_zspider@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks to Dave Z for recommending this one. It
was
> great. I had heard that the main character was
a
> replay of Lou Ford from Killer Inside Me and I
was
> prepared for a replay of that. It's still about
a
> small town sheriff smarter than he acts, but the
mood
> was way different. Lou Ford is just plain scary,
but
> Nick is hilarious. Aside from being funny,
his
> homespun humor carries some serious and pointed
satire
> with it. Not much is safe. Thompson takes a shot
at
> religion, sex, hypocrisy, gullibility, and
small-town
> morals. Twain came to mind. It also surprised
me
> that the setting is back around 1910, near as I
could
> tell. Although it goes without saying, the humor
does
> not prevent the bodies from piling up.
>
> I would appreciate it if you Thompson fans could
give
> me a couple more recommendations. I've already
read
> Killer Inside Me and The Getaway. I liked the
former
> more than the latter. In The Getaway, I thought
the
> characters changed too much towards the end to
be
> believable.
>
> miker
>
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Jul 2007 EDT