by Jim Thompson
Salesman Roy Dillon has a secret life as a top shelf grifter. When he has the opportunity to go legit, how will the women in his life take it? Will his downfall be at the hands of his girlfriend Moira Langtry, or his mother, Lilly?Here we are, another noir tale of self-destruction by Mr. Happy, Jim ...
There was one thing about playing the angles. If you played them long enough, you knew the other guy’s as well as you knew your own. Most of the time it was like you were looking out the same window. Roy Dillon, grifter extraordinaire, was always playing the angles. Though Roy is undoubtedly our pr...
In revisiting "The Grifters," I find it isn't nearly as depressing as I remembered, or as much as I felt the 1990 film to be. The small novel is still classic noir, however, ending on an unexpected twist and packed with characters, large and small, who all seem to be working angles on one another. ...
Man, I really did like this book a lot. It's not Thompson's best work but it is so, so well done. Thompson was, along with Cain, a genius at writing broken, amoral people that you can't help but root for. He was the pied piper of human misery and self destructive nihilism.The plot of the book is mor...
This being my first Jim Thompson novel, I expected brilliance. I had heard from many readers whose opinions I highly respect, that Thompson novels were apexes of noir literature. Maybe. But The Grifters certainly isn't. It has the tasty cheesiness of a mid-century crime noir, but lacks any character...
I loved the film adaptation based on this noir classic so I figured I should read the book. The movie pretty much followed the storyline and I think actually improved it just a bit.
I have never read anybody who comes close to Thompson for his descriptions of violence, which I generally skip for their tedium. He makes you feel like you are there, being buried alive, having your throat cut. He really is remarkable.
Harsh. I can't think of another book which has such thoroughly (amoral or evil? I still don't know) people in it.
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