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From: gsmith@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Gene Ward Smith)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: THREE HARD-BOILED REVIEWS
Message-ID: <11850@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 01:16:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.11850
Posted: Fri Feb 14 01:16:18 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Feb-86 05:00:52 EST
References: <1060@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: gsmith@brahms.UUCP (Gene Ward Smith)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 47

In article <1060@decwrl.DEC.COM> bals@nutmeg.DEC (Once, accident. Twice, coincidence. Three times is enemy action.) writes:

>The hard-boiled genre was probably brought to its pinnacle by Dashiell 
>Hammett (notably in "Red Harvest" ), and to its nadir by Mickey Spillane's 
>But, between that height of Hammett and depth of Spillane a number of writers 
>operated and still operate. 
>
>There's been a great deal of renewed interest in the works of Jim Thompson 
>(1906-77) lately, and happily, many of his books are now being reissued. While 
>James M. Cain, (who Thompson is often compared to), preferred to take 
>"average" people and toss them into criminal situations, Thompson's characters 
>tend to begin as criminals or psychotics. They're unlikable, dangerous, 
>violent, and not the sorts you'd want to meet in even a well-lit alley. 
>Thompson's genius is his ability to take even the most chilling, warped 
>protagonist and ultimately forge some identification between him/her and the 
>reader. At the end, we may still actively fear the character, but we 
>understand his actions. And perhaps, we've come to recognize a little better 
>the violent element that dwells in all of us.
>
>"The Killer Inside Me," first published in 1952, is generally acknowledged as 
>Thompson's masterpiece. The protagonist, Lou Ford, is a deputy sheriff in a 
>small Texas town. As the back cover blurb states, it's a job that gives him 
>plenty of opportunity to indulge ... "the sickness." Ford is a psychopath. He 
>recognizes and even tries to fight his illness. And he fails. The book careens 
>from murder to murder. As the body-count grows, Ford desperately searches 
>for some escape, some way to establish a normal life. And he fails.
>
>"The Killer Inside of Me" is brutal, graphic, and not for those with weak 
>stomachs. For those interested in seeing a master writer of the hard-boiled 
>school at his best, you need look no further than this book.

  This was quite an interesting review, but I would like to make a few 
comments about Jim Thompson. First, he is not really much like James Cain
or Dashiell Hammett. Second, I at least find him the *only* hard-boiled
writer who can consistently command my interst -- I get bored with most
of the others I have read, in fact. Third, while "The Killer Inside Me"
is his best-known book, I don't think it is his best. Some of the same
psychotic sheriff-killer stuff is done with more sinister, black-humor
style in Pop. 1280. Nick Corey is just as crazy as and more interesting
than Lou Ford in my book -- I think "The Killer Inside Me" takes the
psychology stuff too seriously. In any case, read Jim Thompson and
*don't* assume when you've read "Killer" you've read his "acknowledged
masterpiece".
a/carzy

ucbvax!brahms!gsmith    Gene Ward Smith/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
ucbvax!weyl!gsmith      "When Ubizmo talks, people listen."