| Title | : | After Dark, My Sweet (Mulholland Classic) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0316403849 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780316403849 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 223 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1955 |
One afternoon he meets Fay, a beautiful young widow. She is smart and decent -- at least when she's sober.
Soon Collins finds himself involved in a kidnapping scheme that goes drastically wrong almost before it even begins. Because the kid they've picked up isn't like other kids: he's diabetic and without insulin, he'll die. Not the safest situation for Collins, a man for whom stress and violence have long gone hand-in-hand.
After Dark, My Sweet (Mulholland Classic) Reviews
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Como gran guionista que fue, Thompson fundamenta la novela en una historia potente, unos diálogos brillantes y unos pocos personajes embrollados en la acción.
Jim Thompson destaca por sus protagonistas desequilibrados y psicóticos y, en este caso concreto, no es una excepción, pero, curiosamente, es uno de los personajes más sensatos que he visto de toda su creación literaria. Sí que tiene su lado oscuro, pero mantiene la entereza hasta el final.
Una novela sorpresiva para mi porqué me esperaba algo más siniestro y me he encontrado con una historia de relaciones personales de un trío que se embarca en un delito para el que no están preparados.
He echado de menos un poco de acción y tensión que diera un ritmo más acelerado a la lectura.
As a great screenwriter, Thompson based the novel on a powerful story, brilliant dialogue, and a few characters get in action.
Jim Thompson stands out for his unbalanced and psychotic protagonists and, in this particular case, it is no exception, but, curiously, he is one of the most sensible characters I have seen of all his literary creation. He has his dark side, but he maintains his integrity to the end.
A surprising novel for me because I expected something more sinister and I have come across a story of personal relationships of a trio who meet on a crime for which they are not prepared.
I've missed a little action and tension that would give a faster rhythm to the reading. -
Welcome to Jim Thompson's twisted world. Thompson was one of the greatest of the 1950's pulp writers. But, Thompson wrote differently than almost anyone else at that time. His books are often narrated by grifters, conmen, and psychopaths. Often, as in "Killer Inside Me," the world doesn't realize that their local deputy is the nastiest psychopath they ever dreamed of.
In his 1955 novel, "After Dark, My Sweet," the narrator is Kid Collins, a one-time boxing phenom, who left the ring after he punched one opponent so hard that the guy never got up again. Collins drifted from job to job, town to town, prison to prison, psych ward to psych ward, and, as this novel begins, he has escaped from his latest mental hospital. He knows he is nuts and can't stand everyone making fun of him (or is he just paranoid). On the way, he meets an older lush who he can't keep his eyes off of (Faye) and a troubled ex-cop (Uncle Bud) who just happen to be planning a kidnapping and need a sucker to play the fall guy.
The plot isn't filled with too many twists and turns, but what is wonderful here is Thompson's writing, which takes you inside the thinking of a guy who hasn't got all his marbles to begin with. There are, of course, those who are convinced the whole thing is a con on Kid Collins' part, but even cuckoos have moments where they think they are sane.
The world in Thompson's novel is dark and dreary. No one is picking up a hitchhiker. The bartender "slops" down a beer in front of Collins. Collins, even sitting in the bar having a drink, feels that old feeling creeping up on him. His eyes begin to burn. He can't just walk away, but he can't get them to stop needling him.
As to Fay, Collins says his first impression was that she was just a female barfly who hit the booze too hard. But then he decided she was pretty, she'd just led a hard life for too long. And sometimes she could act as nice as she looked, but that's except when her claws came out and she started needling him and pushing him.
The whole story seems somewhat twisted, including the nutty kidnapping plot and dealing with the sick kidnapped kid, but its all told from Collins' point of view and his world is warped and crazy and he doesn't trust anyone at all, not even Fay, not even Uncle Bud, not even the friendly doctor who wants to take him in.
Maybe today there are any number of books told from a warped point of view, but few did it back in the mid-1950's and one can only imagine what it was like back then coming across one of Thompson's books and not knowing what you were getting into. The cover blurb about "twisted lives and tormented loves" doesn't really give an inkling about where this thin volume takes the reader. Enjoy. -
Kid Collins is a former boxer fresh out of the mental institution when he runs into alcoholic Fay Anderson and Uncle Bud, a two bit con man. Fay and Bud conspire to kidnap a wealthy couple's son and pin it on Collins. Too bad Collins is much craftier than he appears and paranoid to boot...
While I didn't enjoy After Dark, My Sweet as much as some of the other Thompson books I've read, it was still pretty good. Once again, Thompson's use of the unreliable narrator set me on edge. Collin's paranoia and hidden capacity for violence were well done, scarily so, much like Pop. 1280. I have a feeling Thompson was even crazier than his biography indicates. His writing is so far beyond that of his contemporaries it's scary.
While it wasn't the best crime story I've ever read, it's still a powerful read. Crime fans should pick it up. -
Ex-boxer William "Collie" Collins is fresh out of the nuthouse, surreptitiously released on his own recognizance, when he stumbles into the clutches of a pair of would-be kidnappers. And, it seems as though they may have a job for him . . .
"A chump is required, Collie. A Grade-A hundred-proof sucker. Someone with a barrel of nerve and a pint of brains. Does that description fit anyone of your acquaintance?"
The die is cast, and the show begins.
This is my third Thompson, and the least favorite of the trio. I can't exactly say why, other than it just seemed slighter than the other two. It says something about Thompson's writing, however, that even though I didn't like this one much, it's still a solid four-star read. The last third of the book is excellent, and there's an absolutely perfect ending.
So, yeah . . . I guess I'm recommending a book I didn't really care for. Go figure. -
A cocktail of paranoid, neurotic, dark, and almost completely unredeemable characters + a diabetic boy + Uncle Bud = a classic Jim Thompson novel. Yup, story checks out. Whenever I think humanity is doing a pretty good job, I just dip a toe into Jim Thompson's world(s) and remember that I spend most my time in the sunshine, but after dark it is a whole different story.
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Υπάρχουν πολλοί "σοβαροί" λόγοι για να διαβάσω ένα ακόμα βιβλίο του Thompson, αλλά και ένας πρακτικός: Πρόκειται για έναν συγγραφέα που αρκείται – ω του θαύματος!- στις 200 σελίδες για να πει ολοκληρωμένα αυτό που θέλει.
Το μοτίβο γνωστό, το σκηνικό ομοίως, οι χαρακτήρες επίσης. Ο κεντρικός ήρωας είναι όσο κατεστραμμένος χρειάζεται (νοητικά εν προκειμένω), καίτοι πάντα προσπαθεί να αντεπεξέλθει, να επανενταχτεί, να επανορθώσει. Εις μάτην προφανώς, καθότι ο περίγυρος, ερεβώδης όσο απαιτείται, είναι πάντα έτοιμος να τον σύρει πίσω στο έλος.
Και τέλος, η Γυναίκα. Ο έρωτας (τα έχω ξαναπεί για το ρομαντικό αυτό είδος λογοτεχνίας), είναι η μόνη κανονικότητα, η μόνη οδός διαφυγής που πρόσκαιρα φωτίζει τον δρόμο του τραγικού ήρωα. Μέσα στα απόνερα του σπαραγμένου βίου του καθρεφτίζεται το φεγγάρι και ο ήρωας στιγμιαία ενδύεται τη λάμψη του, μάταια πάντα, προτού επιστρέψει στο μηδέν.
Αυτός είναι λοιπόν ο "πηλός" στα χέρια του μεγάλου στυλίστα. Ο Thompson ανάβει ένα μικρό κεράκι στο σκοτεινό πηγάδι, κρατώντας το ζωντανό με την πένα του, ανασύροντάς το από τα σκοτάδια ως την τελευταία σελίδα. Και εκεί, με ένα απαλό φύσημα το σβήνει μπροστά στο πρόσωπο του ήρωα, στέλνοντάς τον πίσω στο έρεβος. Και τη στιγμή που αυτός θα κλείσει τα μάτια για πάντα, εμείς ανοίγουμε τα δικά μας… -
[9/10]
There’s something inside of every man that keeps him going long after he has any reason to. He’s no good at life and life is no good to him, and he knows it will always be that way. But still he can’t quit. Something keeps prodding him, whispering to him – making him hope in the face of hopelessness. Making him believe there’s a reason to stay in there and pitch, and that if he fights long enough he’ll stumble onto it.
If anybody were to ask me what is ‘noir’ all I have to do is point at Billy Connolly and exclaim ‘Ecce homo’ , here’s your man! Take a look at a man pushed into a life of crime by a hostile world, mindlessly pushing himself forward towards a predestined end. He’s not an isolated case. A former boxer who is repeatedly sent to the floor to be counted out by a crooked referee, Billy stubbornly refuses to stay down, just like those zombified dancers in Horace McCoy – “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”
Haunted by the abrupt end of his boxing career, William Collins drifts in and out of mental hospitals. He knows there is something wrong with his head, or he wouldn’t voluntarily check himself in. Yet, sooner or later, Billy is hitchhiking on the back country roads, searching for something he cannot put into words. If it’s acceptance he seeks, he’s out of luck, as the whole world revels in kicking a man when he’s down. It’s not surprising that the man becomes a paranoid wreck, suspecting everything and everyone. The countdown to his next breakdown has already started when he enters a dusty bar in the middle of nowhere. There he meets Fay, the required femme fatale of the genre. Collins is drawn to her like a bee to honey.
“Listen closely to Old Mother Anderson, and then get the hell out. Because I’m only laying it on the line for you once ... A chump is required, Collie. A Grade-A hundred-proof sucker. Someone with a barrel of nerve and a pint of brains. Does that description fit anyone of your acquaintance?”
Fay takes him home to her isolated farm and introduces Billy to her friend, Uncle Bud, a shady character with a used car salesman pitch about a sure way to make a fast buck. All Fay and Uncle Bud need is a point man in their scheme, a tough man to do the dirty deed for them
Jim Thompson is a master at misdirection and has an uncanny talent for shaking the readers out of their comfort zone. By making us spend such a long time inside the mind of a seriously conflicted man, Thompson throws down the gauntlet and asks who is at fault here, who is lying through their teeth, who deserves to die and who deserves to live: The alcoholic Fay whose mood swings push her to warn Billy off, only to drag him back deeper into the scheme? Uncle Bud with his transparent lies and barely disguised greed? The kindly country doctor who first brings Bill Collins to his house for treatment and later warns people to stay away from the madman? Billy himself, who likes to play the victim and pretends he’s much more stupid than his internal monologues warrant? Everybody lies about something, Bill Collins included. Throw in a big pile of greenbacks, and all the ugly stuff is bound to rise to the surface.
And it was all so senseless, you know. It would all have been so easy to avoid.
We live in an imperfect world, and we get what we deserve. Maybe it’s this sense of unavoidable Fate that keeps Bill Collins in the killing game long after he finds out he landed in a nest of snakes. He has run away his whole life, and now he feels this isolated farm in the back country is the place to make his last stand.
Knowing what I did, I couldn’t say why I was going ahead. Somehow, I didn’t really think about the way of it. It just seemed like something I had to do – like I’d been set in a rut and had to follow it out to the end. I was hurt, of course; hurt and sore at the whole world. And probably that was why.
Billy dreams often, of being beaten up in the ring, of being locked up among the crazy people, of being run out of town by stone throwing mobs. When he wakes up, all the man sees is a waking nightmarish continuation of these dreams. By the end of the novel, it doesn’t even matter if he lied to the reader or not regarding his insanity. His story is a cry of rage against the ways of the world.
As I got older, of course, I began to see that there could be a lot worse things – like being sane – and not being able to prove it. Or being crowded into a corner where you might hurt someone. Or being around degenerates and perverts so much that you got that way yourself. So I dreamed about those things.
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One of the best novels written by Jim Thomson. Recommended! -
A reread.
I first read this when it was reissued by Black Lizard.
Did not recall how it ended.
What an explosive resolution!
Simple minded ex-boxer named Kid Collins is picked up in a beer joint by an attractive widow after he takes it on the lam from a mental institution.
The pretty widow's name is "Fay" and she's looking for a fall guy for a kidnapping gag she's got lined up with a former cop who calls himself "Doc".
I'm afraid spoilers will dance out of my keypad if I reveal more of the plot.
I think this might be even better than author Jim Thompson's
Highest Possible Recommendation! -
“No good could possibly come out of this now.”—Thompson
This is my third gritty noir Thompson novel, all of them classics: The Killer Inside Me, a creepy handsome “nice guy” serial killer story; The Grifters, a violent mother and son tale, and now this, the story of crazy ex-boxer Kid Collins, who just wants to live in a world where people are nice and polite to him.
All three use the mid-twentieth century fascination with psychopaths, or psychology in general:
“Usually, during the past fifteen-odd years, I'd hated to see the morning come. That's a psychotic symptom, you know, not wanting to awaken--hating to face things that are bound to be more than you can handle.”
Collins is prone to violence, unpredictable, an escapee from a psych hospital, a drifter. He gets tangled up with a crazy alcoholic, Fay, who’s also emotionally unpredictable, and a corrupt cop, Uncle Bud, in a kidnapping caper gone wrong. There’s a psychiatrist in it, too, to help us understand deviance. In general, it is about a decent guy lured into evil. It’s not for my tastes quite as engaging or compelling as the first two I read from Thompson, “the dimestore Dostoyevsky,” but it is still great noir storytelling, in the gutter. No way out but down. -
4/5
Thompson wrote the meanest, most disturbing yet some of the best crime fiction. And After Dark, My Sweet is another great one from him. Recently escaped mental patient Collie is docile by Thomson’s standards but perfect for acting as muscle in a kidnapping job barfly Fay and corrupt ex-cop Bud has in mind. As she puts it when she starts pitying Collie A chump is required, Collie. A Grade-A hundred-proof sucker. Someone with a barrel of nerve and a pint of brains. Collie would move away but Fay is one of those women that make sane men ask themselves insane questions. Will she destroy me? Yes. Will I mind? No. And Collie is not sane.
Thompson’s protagonists are always smarter than what other characters give them credit for. Collie’s paranoia and rage ensures he trusts nobody and he feels protective towards the kid they kidnap. So he is soon outwitting everybody around him and his only goal is to save the kid. It is a pretty good thriller with an ending that turned out to be a lot more tragic than I expected. However Thompson is not about plot, he is all about the writing. He peppers us with one-liners like work being the curse of the drinking classes and he is even better at putting us in the head of his twisted characters.
No one captures the unhinged yet fascinating inner voices of conflicted eccentrics like Thompson. I think Collie is Borderline (give or take a few more personality disorders) the rage, the paranoia, never feeling completely at ease with his surroundings are all giveaways. Collie has multiple interpretations of events happening to him so he can be stupidly delusional or dangerously smart. He can have a mostly regular life if he can think through things but it is obvious he won’t. And Thompson does not see it as tragic he sees it as a cruel joke.
Thompson writes about insanity with a longing familiarity, that’s why he is so unique. Once the readers have accepted the protagonist is crazy, Thompson reels them in and shows his characters has an angle on the world that makes them cut through a lot of the everyday bull. Their angle is often assuming the worst about everybody around them. And then he leaves the reader wondering if that’s all it takes to smarten up a crazy man aren’t we all crazy to assume the world is an all right place?
Quotes: He’s no good to life and life is no good to him, and he knows it will always be that way. But still he can’t quit. Something keeps prodding him whispering to him—making him hope in the face of hopelessness. Making him believe there’s a reason to stay in there and pitch, and that if he fights long enough he’ll stumble onto it.
A person that drinks a lot is always frightened. They may act just the opposite—tough and hard, like they don’t give a damn for anything. But inside they’re scared. They have too much imagination. -
Novela negra, negrísima, escrita en primera persona y de forma muy directa, el autor te sumerge en una historia oscura y claustrofóbica en la que no parece haber lugar para la esperanza.
Es la primera novela que leo de Jim Thompson y me ha encantado. -
“Usually, during the past fifteen-odd years, I'd hated to see the morning come. That's a psychotic symptom, you know, not wanting to awaken--hating to face things that are bound to be more than you can handle.”
― Jim Thompson, After Dark, My Sweet
This is one strange read! But it is very good. Classic Noir story and the author who wrote this also wrote "The Grifters" which is one of my favorite movies although I have yet to read that book.
So this is about a kidnapping that goes horribly wrong. There is a movie version as well starring Jason Patrick.
It is a gritty extremely well written book. Sometimes events can be confusing and it is a wee bit hard to follow but it is a great book and well worth reading particularly if you like the Genre.
I did prefer The Grifters as a movie but both stories are fascinating. I'd highly recommend this book -
Yet to read a bad JT.
But then, I've only read 6 of his works so far. -
Noir god Jim Thompson was an American Celine, only without the prolixity. Although often compared to his peers, Chandler and Hammett, Thompson's novels, of which this is one of the finest, feature no closure or even a way out of hell. AFTER DARK, MY SWEET borrows shamelessly from hard-boiled detective fiction---the femme fatale, a corrupt ex-cop, and a tough but not too bright drifter protagonist---to see who can do more damage to themselves and each other. The plot circles around a hare-brained scheme to kidnap a rich boy for ransom, yet none of the aforementioned losers has any belief it can be carried through to fruition, since life itself is fruitless, random, and pitiless. Completely ignored by fans and critics in the Fifties Thompson lived long enough (D. 1977) to see his literature praised as prophetic of the post-modern world. If you want to see Jim Thompson, watch his cameo appearance in the 1975 film adaptation of Chandler's FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, playing the part of the doomed husband.
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"I was a mental case. I was an escapee from an insane asylum, a pyscho with a gun, and ex-pug who could do plenty without a gun if he took a notion." And that is the narrator of this short novel about three loonies trying to pull-off a Lindberg-baby style kidnapping. Despite the craziness, the suspicions, the - warranted - paranoia, rattling through Kid Collins head, he tries to find a path toward redemption, and that it is believable even though the narrator is unreliable is quite a tribute to Thompson's narrative power.
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Did you know Mulholland has published twenty six of these Jim Thompson books ?
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Jim Thompson is to psychosis what Philip K. Dick is to paranoia. That is to say: The American Master of…
Bill Collins is a good-looking ex-boxer who knows he has a problem with his temper. When he breaks out of a mental institution, he has to hit a man over the head to steal his car. Hates to do it, but you know how that goes. His line of bullshit that he thinks will help him get to the coast is so weak that no one buys it. But Fay Anderson, the lush he meets in a roadhouse, sees that he has other possibilities. Soon he’s involved in a poorly planned kidnapping plot with Kay and the weirdly unbelievable Uncle Bud. But weirdly unbelievable goes with the Thompson territory. In fact, as I recall, it is the Thompson territory.
I read most of Thompson’s 1950’s novels twenty-five years ago during their first round of rediscovery, or at least the first I was aware of. There is clunky dialogue, sleaze, insanity, gallons of alcohol, and surprising moments of grace. Of course things are going to turn out badly and people will die. The fact that one of those will be the first person narrator isn’t a problem for Thompson -
Another of Thompson's "crime gone wrong" tales. But his stories never become repetitive or stale because he doesn't focus on why the caper went awry, but where the people went astray. The stories are psychological and crazy suspenseful and the brief After Dark, My Sweet knows the drill. Maybe one coincidence too many, but the track goes so straight there's no time for detours. His characters are all a little off, a little at the edge, and one hopes not too much like anyone the reader knows, but they're believable, compelling and suck the reader into their lives. The femme fatale here is challenging, prickly, mean, recalcitrant and kind of unforgettable for all that. For all the twisted natures involved in his novels Thompson is inherently moral, teaching us that crime doesn't pay. [3½★]
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Jim Thompson really should be on my Favorite Authors list. Every one of his books of his that I have read has been really amazing. I think what keeps me from calling Thompson a favorite is that every one of his books makes my skin crawl. Thompson does not write about heroes. He creates villains, amazing villains. What's more, the villains that he creates are not the ones that readers observe from across the room. They are the kind of villains that readers experience by looking at the world through their eyes. You come to understand the way they see the world. You find them almost sympathetic and sometimes you find yourself almost agreeing with them. You also find yourself worrying that in the next chapter you will agree with them and that is the scariest thing of all. -
![Ed [Redacted]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1429513592i/3968676.jpg)
Good, old fashioned, noir; as bleak as all get out until the bitter end. A great group of not particularly lovable losers attempt an ill fated kidnaping. Backbiting, paranoia and double crosses abound. It's everything you want and expect from Thompson in one slim volume...and yet...
This is a good book, don't get me wrong. It's just not a *great* book. It is the weakest of the Thompson novels I have read thus far, although that isn't saying much considering that the other Thompson's I have read were utterly fantastic. Definitely worth reading but not his best. -
Every Jim Thompson fan has their favorite. This one is mine. Bill (Kid) Collins has already had it bad and just wants to get along. Like he tells you in the beginning, he just wants to be where people are nice and polite. Then he has to go and get tangled up with Fay and Uncle Bud.
The power in this one is Collie's voice. Read the first chapter and you'll see what I mean. -
Darkly sweet.
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My favorite of all of Jim Thompson's books. Brain-damaged ex-boxer Kid Collins gets mixed up with shifty characters who involve him in a disastrous kidnapping plot. One of the finest first person noir novels ever written, in my opinion.
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I love Thompson, but the last couple I read (The Killer Inside Me, Savage Night), I liked but didn't love. This I did love. Classic noir, more like The Grifters, which is the best.
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Kid Collins es una estrella ex boxeadora que se escapa del Centro Psiquiátrico donde estaba recluido, demasiados combates le dejaron “sonado” y transformaron su carácter; puede ser la persona más amable del Mundo, como un ser extremadamente violento si se le provoca.
Caminando y haciendo auto stop llega a una de esas poblaciones de EEUU más marginales donde conoce a Fay Anderson una bella mujer, alcohólica, que se convertirá en su compañera de andanzas.
Por otro lado, el Tío Bud, que no es tío de nadie, un personaje trilero sin escrúpulos, manipulador…de esos seres deleznables que se aprovechan de los demás.
Será quien les cuente su plan magistral y del que quiere hacerles partícipe: secuestrar a un niño y pedir una recompensa.
Jim Thompson nos presenta una novela de seres marginales de esos que no tienen nada que perder y mucho que ganar, narrada en primera persona por Collins. Donde quizá se le dé mayor protagonismo a las relaciones interpersonales entre los diferentes personajes que al secuestro en sí.
Novela negra con no demasiado ritmo que me ha parecido muy televisiva (no hay que olvidar que el autor fue un notable guionista cinematográfico), pero a la que personalmente he visto carente de acción y tensión en toda su extensión, 188 páginas, aunque me ha gustado mucho su resolución.
Pero sí tengo claro que volveré a leer más novelas del autor, ya tengo por casa “1.280 almas”. -
This book is about how a man who has been aimless in life and drifts from one situation to the other finally gets presented by an opportunity that gave him the spotlight and let him feel useful, even wanted. But then he gets lured into a dark scheme by a beautiful alcoholic widower and a fallen ex police officer who is affably slimy and termendously short sighted.
Collins is running from his past and Fay can't see a future and their interplay is appropriately tragicomic. Their desire and affection for each other is only compounded by the scheme they are in which causes them to become distrustful of each other. The strength and crux of the novel is watching a seed of hope being planted that blooms and withers, yet struggles to survive. Or to borrow the cliche, a flower growing in a junkyard. Adding to that is the crime plot that has some great twists which would only be a kind of red herring in other cliched novels is believably organic here. And Thompsons knack for kind of oddball dialogue actually works here, with Fay's insults ranging from schoolyard meanness to high fallutin bon mots.
It's believable and that's good reading to me. -
Okay, this isn't just noir, this is Jim Thompson noir - so you know this isn't going to be pretty.
Remember the old Star Trek episode where they find a parallel universe that has "Evil Spock"? Well, this book is like the evil opposite universe version of Donald E. Westlake's goofy Jimmy the Kid where the can't-do-anything-right Dortmunder gang kidnaps a kid by following the plot of a "Richard Stark" novel called Child Heist. (A confusing but impressively meta concept for its day - 1974 - as "Stark" is the pen name Westlake used when he wrote his darker "Parker" books - although compared to Thompson's characters, Parker is a mere noir wannabe.)
Anyway, yeah - if Dortmunder had read After Dark instead of the non-existent Child Heist, he would never have dreamed of taking young Jimmy, because even Thompson's mentally challenged narrator Bill Collins knew this could only lead to disaster. But still makes for a good - if depressing - read. Because, you know, Thompson and noir.
MISC. NOTES: Okay, this title makes no sense. Nothing happens after dark, and there is certainly no "my sweet." Yes, Bill is attracted to the sexy, crazy mean-when-drunk (and she's always drunk) Fay - but the last think anyone would call her is "sweet."
And there's also a 1990 movie version of this, starring an up-and-coming Jason Patric and an if-not-already-on-her-way-down Rachel Ward, then at least a post "Thorn Birds" and "Against All Odds" one. It actually got an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes - but for some reason, in the movie they change Collins' name from "William" to "Kevin"...why do they do things like that?? -
If you have never read Thompson, this wouldn't be the book to start with. (That being said, it is much, much better than the new over-hyped thrillers such as "Girl on a Train"--But then again, the back of a cereal box is better than that atrocity.)
There's nothing wrong with this book; it just isn't one of his strongest. I would be much better to start with something like "The Killer Inside Me." Now THAT'S a strong book! -
Jim Thompson is a sort of street psychologist who uses noir as an exploration of exactly how people go about wrecking themselves and each other. His real trick here is being able to coil up a nice, twisty plotline without its feeling overly contrived. There's a sort of irresistible downward pull to his scenarios that suggest -- without their being predictable -- that the way it goes really is the only way it could go. As opposed to the too-often problems of such a story that leave the reader feeling annoyed that his/her emotions are being blatantly manipulated for impact. And Thompson's finales do not disappoint.
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Primer libro que leo de Jim Thomson y a pesar de ser considerado uno de los maestros de la novela negra a mi me ha dejado bastante indiferente. No me ha enganchado ni me ha tenido en tensión que es lo que yo espero de una novela de este género.
