| Title | : | Getaway (Mulholland Classic) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0316403970 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780316403979 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 225 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1958 |
THE GETAWAY is the classic story of a bank robbery gone horribly wrong, where the smallest mistakes have catastrophic consequences, and shifting loyalties lead to betrayals and chaos. The basis for the classic Steve McQueen film of the same name, as well as a 1994 remake with Alec Baldwin, Thompson's novel set the bar for every heist story that followed--but as Thompson's proved time and again, nobody's ever done it better than the master.
Getaway (Mulholland Classic) Reviews
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I didn't believe a word of this and it's not like this was a first novel, it was his 19th, so I'm thinking that he was maybe drunk in charge of a typewriter or was just having a real bad month, or something.
First off, I don't like characters called Doc. Even if they're doctors. This is a personal quirk, so I tried to disregard it.
Second, if this Doc McCoy is such an all-round criminal mastermind – and that is the very term used on p 58 - groan! – how come he got caught and went down for a 20 stretch in the first place?
Third, didn't he notice that his right-hand man for the bank heist was a drooling psycho who was quite likely to fuck up the whole caper?
Fourth, I don't think a clan of "hill people, rebels and outlaws…people with a very real sense of honor" (the boss of which is a six-foot woman called Ma - of course she is!) would be old friends with this superior criminal mastermind at all since all he does is dishonourably rob, kill and smirk. I think Jim Thompson just couldn't be bothered and called up Central Noir Agencies in 1958 and said "Yeah, I need a brainy criminal, a tough guy with mental problems, a cute wifey type, you know, perky blonde, yeah, and a bunch of honourable hill people… how soon can you get them over here?"
Fifth, every so often Jim Thompson likes to impart his knowledge of the underworld to the reader, so he will say things like :
Doc prowled about the cabin, automatically inspecting it as he did any place that was strange to him. He was looking for nothing in particular. Simply looking. Most top-drawer criminals have this habit.
Eyes must be rolled and a chorus of "you think, Jim, you think?" spring spontaneously from the lips of even the most well-disposed reader.
Sixth, the last 20 pages of this absurd melodrama change gear so violently that I think the gear stick must have come right off. The spray-on tough realism of the first 120 pages is abandoned and now we get some kind of Kafkaesque dreamy symbolism all about ultimate justice or karma or sumpin. At this point my eyes were beyond rolling. They could roll no more. -
***3.5 out of 5 stars***
”The French seem to appreciate best Thompson’s brand of terror. Roman noir, literally ‘Black novel,’ is a term reserved especially for novelists such as Thompson, Cornell Woolrich and David Goodis. Only Thompson, however, fulfills the French notion of both noir and maudit, the accursed and self destructive. It is an unholy picture that Thompson presents.
Thompson’s male leads are almost always schizophrenics, plagued by erratic behavior, haunted by an unpredictable demon; this split personality emerges as well in the writing itself, marking the author as recognizably as he marks his confused characters.”---Barry Gifford
Jim Thompson
Traditionally, the French have always appreciated American contributions to literature, music (Jazz and Blues in particular), and art more than the country from which these talented individuals were spawned. Americans tend to look on edgy, uncomfortable writing, unusual, groundbreaking music, and complicated, exciting art as forms of degeneration. The French find these aspects of the creative arts stimulating, intoxicating. Experiencing something new or unusual is not something to be suspicious of or condemning of, but exhilarated by. If these artists, writers, and musicians can live long lives, they might, eventually, be seen by Americans in the same way as they are revered in Europe, and then again...maybe not.
Fortunately for Jim Thompson, occasionally Hollywood would come along and buy the rights to one of his books to make a movie. The Getaway is one of those books. Thompson was even asked to work on the script, but was fired over creative differences with Steve McQueen. The movie is loosely based on the book, and I’m sure that Thompson had a movie script in mind that was something closer to the way he originally wrote the story. McQueen was probably more interested in making a movie that would be a box office success. The movie came out in 1972 and was the second highest grossing film of the year, so McQueen may have been right, and Thompson may have been too drunk and stubborn to see reason. I can just hear Thompson while arguing with McQueen saying something like…”Hey, I’m the writer; you’re just a f-bomb actor.” My active imagination sees McQueen pushing Thompson into the pool and then McQueen having to dive in and save a drunk Thompson as he flounders about, unable to find the edge of the pool.
I watched the movie first because I have been wanting to watch some Sam Peckinpah movies and my son had a copy of The Getaway and he, with his film degree, is an astute movie watching companion. So circumstances dictated that I ended up watching the movie before reading the book, but the movie only stoked my interest in the book. The basic premise of the book is used in the movie. The relationship between Doc and Carol is one of the more fascinating aspects of the book and the movie.
When Doc is sent away to prison, it doesn’t even cross Carol’s mind to divorce him or go her own way. She puts her life on hold, waiting for the day that Doc walks out of that prison. Carol was a mousy librarian who blooms under the influence of Doc. Why would she ever want to go back to being who she was before Doc started paying attention to her? ”Reform, Change? Why, and to what? The terms were meaningless. Doc had opened a door for her, and she had entered into, adopted and been adopted by, a new world. And it was difficult to believe now that any other had ever existed. Doc’s amoral outlook had become hers. In a sense, she had become more like Doc than Doc himself. More engagingly persuasive when she chose to be. Harder when hardness seemed necessary.”
When Doc is denied parole after serving four years, all hope leaches out of him. He can’t afford the time it will take to play by the rules. He asks Carol to go see a guy named Beynon on the parole board and make a deal. He is willing to do anything to get out of jail, and what Beynon needs him to do is rob a bank. Trust is something that is hard to come by in the criminal profession, and not only does Doc not trust his fellow gang members (supplied by Beynon), but there is a niggling concern about exactly whether he can trust Carol. What exactly did she do to get Beynon to agree to let Doc out? How far did she go? Did she sleep with him? Does he ultimately care? Does she and Beynon want Doc out of the way?
As a reader and as a watcher, I want Carol to be the loyal Bonnie to Doc’s Clyde. It’s a better story, but we are talking about Jim Thompson, a writer with a notoriously dark view of human interactions. So as the plot unspools, I’m kept on pins and needles, wondering about Carol as well. It’s an aspect that, in my opinion, lifts the movie and the book to a higher level of appreciation.
The ending of the book is odd. One reviewer speculates that Thompson must have been drunker than usual when he dashed off the final pages of the book. I wonder if he was actually trying to get sober when he wrote those pages. He seems to write just fine while snookered, but who knows what he would pound out of those typewriter keys if he were trying to formulate paragraphs through a haze of pink elephants. I enjoyed the finale of the movie better than the book. The baffling conclusion of the book was replaced by a new ending with Slim Pickens, which actually turns out to be an unexpectedly charming final scene.
The Getaway from 1972.
In my mind, I’ve blended the movie and the book together to form a more perfect union. The story has simply become larger and better crafted with the benefit of several visions. This is certainly a more cerebral Bonnie and Clyde cross country escape with double crosses, double dealing, and plenty of mayhem to make this a classic of the genre.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
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https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten -
Doc McCoy, Rudy "Piehead" Torrento, and an accomplice rob the Beacon City Bank and immediately begin double crossing each other. Can Doc McCoy and his wife make it to Mexico before Torrento takes them down or the police catch them?
The Getaway it the tale of a bank heist and its aftermath, told in Jim Thompson's bleak style. Actually, it's really light compared to the other four Thompson's I've read up to this point, more akin to Richard Stark's Parker series than The Killer Inside me. Doc McCoy is a planner and a smooth operator, always ready for a hitch. His wife, Carol, is more like him than either of them care to admit.
The twists kept coming. The flight into Mexico was pretty harrowing. How many crime novels have you read that feature the protagonists hiding in holes in the ground or under a big pile of manure?
"So why only a 3?" you ask. Well, while I respect The Getaway as one of the early heist stories and I'm already a Thompson fan, I just didn't enjoy it that much. The writing was up to par but after reading so many of Richard Stark's Parker books and The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynski, it just wasn't that great. It's still a good read but it's definitely a second tier Thompson book, more akin to Savage Night or After Dark, My Sweet, than to The Killer Inside Me or Pop. 1280. -
What the fffaaa…..That’s not the ending…..I saw the movie……that’s not what happened…..
My initial response to the ending of The Getaway was not positive. I think I needed to digest it for a while before writing the review. I was on board until that last chapter. So I thought about it, read an interesting review that focused on the ending of the book, re-read the last chapter and….I’m cool with it. All these smart as hell authors with their high-falootin’ metaphors that are typically lost on a dummy like me.
I’m a literal guy. Thankfully, someone smarter than me explained a couple of things and I pretty much did a 180. This is how this needed to end. There are a couple of slow spots here and there, but there are portions that shine. For an author that supposedly didn’t do a lot of editing, he really writes the shit out of a few parts.
I can see why this ending was left out of the movies. The typical movie goer isn’t gonna like this ending. But it needs to be this way. Thompson’s The Getaway is a good book. While I didn’t like it as much as
The Killer Inside Me and
Pop.1280 , it’s a classic that I will undoubtedly be re-reading again a little further down the road. -
YO. GUYS. FROM DUSK TILL DAWN IS BASICALLY A REWORK OF THIS 1958 BOOK????? Two robbers on the run, one of them recently out of prison, being chased down by the law in a manhunt, taking hostages and trying desperately to get to the border, in order to cross over to a mythical Mexican paradise city called El Rey? Robert Rodriguez just added fucking vampires. See:
El Rey.
I am so charmed by this realisation. It's a cool read, though I definitely languished in the middle as the pace slows down, hence taking such a long time to finish. It's still well-written, though: the violence is punchy and unsettling, and it delves into the stress and strain and tension of being on the run, the situations and tight spots (literally) that Doc and Carol get themselves into, the paranoia and mistrust that starts festering when you're both criminals desperate to survive but also still in love...
The last chapter is extremely interesting and quite the tonal shift, and apparently has been omitted from both movie adaptations (which I really want to see now regardless). The ending is surreal and nightmarish and totally unexpected, which is what tipped this from a 3 to a 4. -
4.5 stars. The Getaway begins with what would usually be the middle of most heist stories and is mostly about the aftermath of the crime (hence the title). But the story is not your usual "Bonnie and Clyde"-type thriller. This highly suspenseful yarn is ultimately about the disintegration of this couple's relationship as their journey leads them into some deep shit (literally). The only disappointing thing is the build up of a great character with lots of potential, that ultimately goes nowhere.
This is my 2nd Jim Thompson novel, and it turns out to be just as haunting, bizarre, and all-out ballsy as my first,
A Hell of a Woman. And just like in that book, The Getaway has an ending that will first make you pause and think to yourself, "Wait, what in the f......hold on, did I just read that?", and then make you want to go back and read the entire book again. I definitely can't wait to see what his other books are like!
"You tell yourself it is a bad dream. You tell yourself you have died--you, not the others--and have waked up in hell. But you know better. You know better. There is an end to dreams, and there is no end to this." -
This is one of the better Jim Thompson noirs I've read. It's a twisty chase novel with the expected double-crosses, close calls, and violent clashes. Then toward the end, the story veers into something else but in an intriguing way. Doc McCoy, the bank robber, is a nice guy psychopath. I've read and heard that Thompson wrote fast and didn't revise his output. If so, he did a bang up job with his first drafts because he's delivered the goods.
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Terrific - just terrific. Jim Thompson puts Sartre in the shithouse. But pulp novels never get the credit some long-dead French guy's stuff get. But don't mistake it. This is a real existentialist nightmare, and you don't even realize it til the last third of the novel. What Thompson does to you is the same thing Dostoevsky excelled in doing - making you feel physically ill about what happens to imaginary people.
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My first time reading a crime noir novel has left me unsure of how I feel about it - very strange ending.....I may have to read this again.
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The 1972 Peckinpah movie is my all-time favorite. I have seen it many times since I was a kid. This made it difficult for me to fully appreciate the book. The biggest difference is the ending. In the movie, Doc and Carol eventually make a clean getaway. The book is not so sanitary:
"Earl filled a crockery jug with water and led Carol and Doc down through his gullied backyard to a haystack-size mound of manure ..."
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Τον Φεβρουάριο του 2012 διάβασα το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο, στην κάπως κουτσουρεμένη μετάφραση των εκδόσεων Πεχλιβανίδη (τίτλος έκδοσης: "Η φυγή"). Μετά από τόσα χρόνια, αποφάσισα να το ξαναδιαβάσω, σε μια κανονική και αρκετά πιο σύγχρονη μετάφραση, έτσι ώστε να απολαύσω το κλασικό αυτό μυθιστόρημα όπως ακριβώς του αξίζει, ειδικά από τη στιγμή που ο Τζιμ Τόμσον είναι ένας από τους πλέον αγαπημένους μου συγγραφείς. Ε, ήταν σαν να διάβασα το βιβλίο για πρώτη φορά!
Η όλη ιστορία αρχίζει με την αιματηρή ληστεία μιας τράπεζας σε κάποια Αμερικάνικη κωμόπολη και συνεχίζει με ρυθμούς γρήγορους έως φρενήρεις, ουσιαστικά με τον αγώνα των δυο πρωταγωνιστών (του Κάρτερ "Δόκτωρ" ΜακΚόυ και της γυναίκας του) να ξεφύγουν και να φτάσουν σε ένα μέρος το οποίο θα θεωρήσουν ως ασφαλές καταφύγιο. Όμως, ενώ η ληστεία αυτή καθαυτή θα πάει καλά (έστω και με μια κάποια αιματοχυσία), η διαφυγή θα είναι γεμάτη εμπόδια κάθε είδους, πολλά εκ των οποίων σχετίζονται άμεσα με τον χαρακτήρα και τη ψυχοσύνθεση των πρωταγωνιστών...
Τι να λέμε τώρα, μιλάμε για ένα μαύρο μυθιστόρημα, γεμάτο βία, ένταση και σκληράδα, με την πλοκή να κινείται υπερβολικά γρήγορα και να μην αφήνει τον αναγνώστη να πάρει έστω και μια ανάσα. Οι χαρακτήρες είναι αρκετά "βρώμικοι" -δύσκολα μπορεί να τους συμπαθήσει κανείς, από την άλλη όμως ενδιαφέρεσαι γι'αυτούς-, η ατμόσφαιρα εξαιρετική, όπως αρμόζει σε ένα δυνατό παλπ μυθιστόρημα, ενώ η γραφή είναι πραγματικά πάρα μα πάρα πολύ καλή και κάπως κυνική, με εξαιρετικές περιγραφές των διαφόρων σκηνικών και γεγονότων. Για λεπτομέρειες δεν του βάζω πέντε αστεράκια, αλλά δεν έχει σημασία, το βιβλίο είναι πραγματικά πολύ καλό και το προτείνω με χίλια.
Υ.Γ. Τώρα θα μπορέσω να δω επιτέλους την ομότιτλη ταινία του 1972, σε σκηνοθεσία Sam Peckinpah και με πρωταγωνιστές τους Steve McQueen και Ali MacGraw. -
It begins as a typical terse thriller and in the last chapter suddenly turns into a surreal hybrid of Kakfa, Borges, and...erm...Steely Dan. Highly recommended.
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Thompson’s strength is his uncanny ability to create chillingly credible portraits of criminals and misfits at the far edges of society.
This story of a bank robbery and its aftermath is a common enough plot, but write with such style and originality that it leaves the reader calling out for more, but at just under 200 pages it’s the perfect length, and gripping throughout.
Unlike the films, the novel has a savagely twisted and even surreal ending that though out of context somehow fits the sadistic action of the rest of the book. -
"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." ---Don Henley. The last 30 pages of this Thompson novel perfectly describe hell, which is precisely why they have been left out of both film adaptations of THE GETAWAY. Master bank robber "Doc" McCoy and his wife Carol voyage through and finally out of a collapsing America only to find themselves deposited in a Disney version of a large prison constructed by other criminals, including some from their past. If hell was fire and brimstone, mud and dung, and reserved for deserving sinners it might be tolerable. Instead, hell is more like Pleasantville, where the money they have stolen is worthless and the corpses "Doc" has piled up are resurrected in the form of their friends. My grand criticism of this novel in the Thompson canon is that it is far too much plot-driven; the last thing you want from Jim Thompson. A great Thompson novel should be like the best of Samuel Beckett, "where nothing happens, twice." Incidentally, Big Jim was cheated out of screenwriting credit for both THE GETAWAY, 1973 version(it went to macho-man screenwriter and director Walter Hill instead) and Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING. In both cases, criminal life, as in Hollywood life, imitated art.
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More than just a running from the law and the evil criminals, too type-book, but a surreal analogy of how much crap a married couple can endure. And speaking of crap, the capper is when they're reduced to hiding out under a ton of horse manure for hours. Yeah, sometimes marriage feels a lot like that!
As the book develops, husband and wife become increasingly more paranoid and distrustful of each other until they can barely look at each other in the eye. So, forget the Steve McQueen and Alec Baldwin movies, neither of them did justice to this amazing book. And the ending is like nothing you've ever read! -
This is classic noir, so well written, so off-the-rails from the normal heist story, full of fascinating characters & unexpected detours, and the ending is fitting & chilling in the extreme, Dante meets the Eagles. I was moved to read it by re-watching the movie of the same name with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, I had seen it years ago. I found as an adult I was dissatisfied with the “happy” ending & saw the less than subtle hand of Hollywood in it. I ordered the book & read it in a day, and discovered subtleties & quirks galore. The foreword by Laura Lippman, was also excellent. Doc McCoy, Carol, and Rudy are fabulous characters, but pray your path never crosses theirs. Fast read, it is a real page-turner. Very highly recommended.
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This just felt like a poorly done cliche from the start. It wasn't terrible until it just seemed to enter a death spiral at the end. It was getting three stars until the last couple of chapters and then I had to change the review to two stars. Maybe I just didn't get it.
So two stars and a "just okay" from me. Sad, I really wanted to like this one. I have never seen the movie so can't really compare the two. I doubt I will end up seeing the movie unless I happen to be watching TCM, when there is nothing else on, right when it starts or something. This one just ended up not being a winner for me.
But hey, it is considered a "classic" of the genre so what I dislike might be what you love, so don't let me dissuade you from giving it a go. It is a fast action packed read so if you end up not liking it, you won't have wasted too much of your time with it. -
So close to a four star (or better) book, hamstrung by the final chapter. For most of the book, Thompson crafts a great crime novel that calls to mind the Parker books that Westlake would eventually write. Unfortunately, all of the subtlety and atmosphere that was developed in the early chapters is completely thrown out in the last chapters once the protagonists have reached their goal.
If I could have stopped before the last chapters, it would have been a four star book. The characters are interesting, and the plot races along and twists and turns dangerously as Doc and Carol make their way away from the scene of the crime.
Damn that last chapter. -
When 'Doc' McCoy pulls off the bank heist that is supposed to set him up for his retirement, he didn't reckon with the lengths to which bad luck would go to mess up his getaway. Every time you think things couldn't get worse for Doc, a charming, crafty sociopath, and his wife, they do. Until finally things get really nasty in the end. I felt this one wasn't as tightly crafted as The Killer Inside Me, but there are passages of such breathtakingly bleak and beautiful prose and sequences of such stark, but never gratuitous, brutality that I have to focus on what works rather than what doesn't in rating this book. I watched Out Of The Past and then sat up and finished this book late last night; I definitely need some light relief now.
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if you like this review, i now have website:
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more
The Killer Inside Me
Pop. 1280
After Dark, My Sweet
??? 90s?: maybe my favorite jim thompson? maybe: so much better than any of the films they tried to make of it... -
Wicked smart. I'll have to sleep on this one. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the ending.
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Sure, a Pal's a Pal, But Crime Doesn't Pay, I Always Say
Can't think of a worse guy to play "Doc" than Steve McQueen. -
Although I don't think this is Thompson's best (that would go to
Pop. 1280), the scene near the end of the book with Carol in the cave was so excruciating, I'm bumping this up to four stars just for the squeam factor. Otherwise, I thought both films based on the book were probably a better way of telling this story. (McQueen and MacGraw in the first and Madson and Tilly in the second being high points)
But if all you know of the ending is from the films, be ready for something completely different. -
I was pleasantly surprised by this classic. I thought it would be a bunch of cliches about gangsters from the 40s, but was mistaken. It was full of blood and easy killings. Just the way I like my crime books - or murder books as hubby calls them. You know what sucked though? The ending. I have to admit I was a tad lost at the end and lost all interest in seeing if the getaway duo lived lol
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An excellent, gritty crime thriller until the last chapter where an incredible tonal shift drops you in an unsettling, Kafkaesque nightmare. I couldn’t stop thinking about that ending!
Borrowed from Jess. -
06/2015
Some very suspenseful and vivid scenes. -
1959 erschien mit der Gangsterballade THE GETAWAY jener Roman, den Sam Peckinpah 13 Jahre später als ersten Roman des Autors Jim Thompson überhaupt verfilmen und als Vorlage für seinen erfolgreichsten Film nutzen sollte. Allerdings mochte Thompson Peckinpahs Adaption nicht. Wo sein Roman als eine Innenschau des Gangstermilieus als Arbeitermilieu daher kommt, ließ Peckinpah sein Gangsterpärchen in einer blutigen Romanze jeglicher Sozialkontexte enthoben in ein mythisches Mexiko fliehen.
Doc (Carter) McCoy ist dem Gefängnis entronnen, indem er dem Vorsitzenden des Begnadigungsausschusses, Benyon, eine hohe Geldsumme versprochen hat. Diese will er durch einen Überall auf die Bank von Beacon City besorgen. Er und seine Frau Carol, die maßgeblich an seiner Freilassung beteiligt war, was er allerdings noch nicht weiß, wollen sich mit dem Rest der Beute nach Kalifornien ab- und dort zur Ruhe setzen. Um den Überfall durchzuziehen, hat sich Doc Unterstützung durch Rudy Torrento, einer berüchtigten Unterweltgröße geholt. Doch Rudy spielt sein eigenes Spiel und so kommt es zu einer Auseinandersetzung zwischen Doc und seinem Kompagnon, die letzterer scheinbar nicht überlebt. Da Carol unterwegs einen fürchterlichen Fehler begeht, müssen Doc und sie vollkommen neu planen und werden schließlich entdeckt, was ihr Weiterkommen ab nun immer unbequemer werden läßt. Während die beiden, offensichtlich massiv voneinander entfremdet, die weitere Flucht antreten, die zusehends zu einem Parcoursritt quer durch den Westen der U.S.A. ausartet, stellt sich vermehrt die Frage, ob sie überhaupt noch zueinander passen. Unterwegs erweist sich Doc als ganz der Alte: Wenn es sich auf ihre Flucht günstig auswirkt, wird durchaus mal ein Unschuldiger erschossen; so freundlich Doc seinen Mitmenschen auch erscheinen mag, er ist ein knallharter und auch skrupelloser Gangster. Carol hingegen muß sich die Frage gefallen lassen, ob sie, das einst so behütete Kleinstadtküken, der Stolz ihrer Eltern, dieses Leben leben will, oder ob sich ihre Wege von Docs endgültig trennen sollen. Endlich in Kalifornien angekommen, treffen sie nicht nur auf den vermeintlich toten Rudy, sondern in Ma Santis auch auf willkommene Hilfe. Ihre letzte Zuflucht heißt Mexiko...
Jim Thompson - Hohepriester des dunkelsten und zynischsten Weltbildes, das sich denken läßt - versucht sich an einer Romanze mit doppeltem Boden. Vom ersten Moment an macht dieser Roman deutlich, daß er radikal aus dem Milieu der Gangster und ganz schweren Jungs erzählt. Und zugleich werden wir ebenso auf den ersten Seiten bereits informiert, daß dieser Doc McCoy eine große Liebe hat. Und auf den folgenden 200 Seiten geben sich die Eheleute McCoy beide grüblerischen Gedanken hin, was die Qualität und die Haltbarkeit ihrer Ehe angeht. Daß Carol Benyon mehr zu Diensten war, als Doc für nötig hielt, ist das eine, ein Leben, welches nicht nur permanente Gewaltbereitschaft erfordert, sondern auch zu Situationen führen kann, die schier ausweglos erscheinen, das andere. Und so umkreisen sich Doc und Carol ununterbrochen, belauern sich, begehren einander, kommen nie zusammen, weil jedes Mal, wenn sich Intimität einstellen könnte, irgendetwas dazwischenkommt und fragen sich dennoch, was der andere im Schilde führt. Thompson macht das geschickt, indem er uns am regen Innenleben Carols teilhaben, während er McCoy als genau den erscheinen läßt (auch in der Innensicht), als der er von außen betrachtet wird und worauf sich sein Ruhm stützt: Er ist ein cooler Hund, der nie einen Gedanken mehr an irgendetwas verschwendet als unbedingt nötig und ansonsten mit seinem einnehmenden Charme und seiner Freundlichkeit nahezu jeden für sich zu gewinnen weiß. Und er ist ein Kerl, der die Gewalt nicht unbedingt liebt, doch jederzeit bereit ist, sie anzuwenden, um sich Vorteile zu verschaffen oder aus brenzligen Situationen zu befreien. Ohne daß der Leser dies unbedingt direkt merkt, wechselt Thompson die Erzählperspektiven gerade zwischen Doc und Carol immer wieder und zeigt uns schließlich entscheidende Szenen aus Carols Wahrnehmung. Da sie schließlich den Fehler begeht, das gestohlene Geld aus den Augen zu verlieren und dann auch noch auf den billigen Trick eines Betrügers hereinfällt, ist sie scheinbar verantwortlich für das Mißlingen der Flucht. Doch Thompson nutzt diese Szenen nahezu perfekt, um Carols eher mittelständische Herkunft gegen McCoys Gangstermentalität abzusetzen. Ihre Gedanken und Bedürfnisse sind jedem Reisenden nachempfindlich: Die Tasche zu schwer, die Wartezeit zu lang, die Bahnhofshalle zu unbekannt, als daß die drohenden Gefahren (Betrügereien) erkannt werden könnten. Da die ganze Geschichte während der Depression der 30er Jahre angelegt ist, ist Carols Unverständnis für und Unkenntnis des Bahnhofs durchaus nachvollziehbar und glaubwürdig. Zudem unterstreicht ihre Hilflosigkeit noch einmal ihre HErkunft. Sie ist weder das Reisen gewohnt, noch das Leben an der Seite eines Gangsters. Zumal dieser gerade 4 Jahre im Zuchthaus gesessen hat und sie also auch diese Erfahrung - Strohwitwe eines verknackten Gangsters zu sein - erstmals machen musste.
Da Jim Thompson oberflächlich eine reine Raub- und Fluchtgeschichte erzählt, deren ersten Zweidrittel innerhalb weniger Stunden spielen, bevor das letzte Drittel die Zeit der Flucht enorm dehnt und auf Wochen ausweitet, bezieht diese Geschichte ihre Spannung weniger aus der der reinen Aktion - die zudem jedes Mal, wenn es brenzlig wird, sowieso zugunsten der McCoys entschieden wird und der Leser dies auch weiß - sondern vielmehr aus dem Spannungsverhältnis dieser Beiden zueinander und darüber hinaus in jenem der beiden zu ihrer Umwelt. Es wurde schon angedeutet, daß man den Roman auch als eine Geschichte lesen kann, die von den Mühen proletarischer Arbeit erzählt und vom Abstand der Arbeiterklasse zum klassischen amerikanischen Mittelstand, dem Carol entstammt. Ob Doc selbst, ob jene, die ihnen unterwegs helfen - hierbei sei v.a. eine Familie sogenannter 'Okies' erwähnt, die die Flüchtigen große Teile der Strecke nach Kalifornien mitnimmt, einfach weil man das so macht unterwegs auf der Landstraße in Zeiten des Elends; ein deutlicher Wink hinüber zum Kollegen John Steinbeck und seiner Familie Joad in THE GRAPES OF WRATH - oder aber Ma Santis (die deutlich der realen Gestalt Ma Bakers nachempfunden ist, einer Figur, die Thompson fasziniert haben muß, taucht sie in Variationen doch in einigen seiner Romane auf) - all diese Kriminellen werden dargestellt als Menschen mit einem Ehrenkodex und klaren Wertvorstellungen. Sie huldigen einem Arbeitsethos, welches ein Proletarier oder Handwerker sein Eigen nennen würde: Arbeit muß getan werden, sie muß gut getan werden (auch ein Banküberfall kann ein Meisterstück oder verhunzt werden) und man hilft einander, wenn einer in der Patsche sitzt. Daß sämtliche Nichtgangster dabei wie Störenfriede wirken, wie Fremdkörper in einer an sich regulierten Welt, unterstreicht diese Haltung des Romans noch. Thompson verstand sich als Kommunist, er war kurzzeitig sogar Mitglied der kommunistischen Partei Amerikas. Zudem hatte er durchaus Erfahrungen mit Kriminalität gemacht, da er während der Prohibition als Alkoholschmuggler gearbeitet hatte. Die Engführung von arbeitender Bevölkerung und Verbreche(r)n ist fast naheliegend bei einem solchen Pessimisten wie Thompson. In einer Gesellschaft, die durch und durch verbrecherisch und korrupt ist, wofür u.a. Benyon steht, ist der Verbrecher letztlich der einzig ehrliche Mensch. Man kann bei einem gebildeten Menschen wie Jim Thompson durchaus davon ausgehen, daß er Brechts Credo, eine Bank zu gründen, sei im Vergleich zu einem Bankraub das ungleich größere Verbrechen, wohl kannte. THE GETAWAY ist in gewisser Weise der in Prosa gefasste Versuch eines Beweises dieser These. Und zugleich vermißt er mit dem gegensätzlichen Paar Doc und Carol den Abstand der Schichten zueinander. Was dem Arbeiter vollkommen normal erscheint - hier wäre es die Anwendung von Gewalt, was Doc keine Probleme bereitet, auch wenn er es nicht gern tut, was ihn von vielen anderen im Universum des Jim Thompson unterscheidet, sie wird schlicht als eine Art Rüstzeug dieser Arbeit dargestellt - wirkt auf den Abkömmling der (behüteten) Mittelklasse nahezu unzumutbar. Ein Thema, daß Thompson im Roman auch auf anderen Ebenen durchspielt, wenn die Arbeit der beiden es eben erforderlich macht, eine Nacht in einer Höhle und schließlich Tage im Inneren eines Misthaufens zu verbringen, was Doc jeweils als gegeben hinnimmt, Carol jedoch an die Grenzen ihrer Belastbarkeit führt. Nebenbei erlaubt sich Thompson mit diesen zusehends unappetitlicheren Fluchtaspekten ganz im Sinne seines oft sardonischen Humors eine kleine Variation auf das Thema "Verbrechen zahlt sich nicht aus".
Doch wäre Jim Thompson nicht Jim Thompson, wenn er es dabei bewenden ließe, denn dann käme bei dem ganzen Unterfangen nichts als Kitsch heraus. Ein Verbrecher bleibt eben doch auch ein Verbrecher. Und das Verbrechen macht eben auch etwas mit dem Verbrecher. Und die Umstände, das Sein, welches ja bekanntlich das Bewußtsein bestimmt, lassen den ehrlichen Arbeiter vielleicht zum Verbrecher werden (wie es an einer Stelle explizit über den gewaltsam verstorbenen Rudy Torrento heißt), erst einmal an dem Ende der Leiter angekommen, macht das Verbrechersein aus diesem eben auch ein Wrack. Sowohl moralisch als auch seelisch. Wenn Thompson sein Verbrecherpaar am Ende des Romans in einer mexikanischen Enklave, einer Art Refugium für amerikanische Gangster, das eher der Hölle auf Erden gleicht, das so verführerische Nichtstun nicht genießen läßt, weil sie nun nicht nur mehr oder weniger freiwillige Gefangene ihres mexikanischen Gastgebers El Rey sind, sondern noch viel mehr die ihres eigenen Mißtrauens allem und jedem, erst recht dem anderen, dem Geliebten gegenüber, dann kann man hier eine treffende Allegorie auf die Umstände finden, die den Menschen zu dem machen, was er ist, wesentlich - seines nächsten Wolf. Die ganze eigentliche Handlung dieses eher ungewöhnlichen Romans dieses Autors, ist eine Liebesgeschichte zwischen Zweien, die sich durch die räumliche Trennung entfremdet haben und viel zu spät merken, daß die Art von Liebe, die sie zweifelsohne füreinander empfinden, möglicherweise schlicht nicht reicht, weil sie Menschen sind, die sich so gnadenlos selbst am nächsten stehen, daß daneben für andere kein Platz mehr bleibt. So sehr man diesen beiden die Romantik einer glückenden Liebe wünscht und damit im Ouvre des Autors ein wenig Licht im Dunkel erblicken möchte: In Thompsons Welt wird es immer etwas geben - die Gewalt, die Härte, das Wesen des Menschen - das zwischen der Hoffnung und der Wirklichkeit steht. THE GETAWAY macht da keine Ausnahme, in diesem Werk wird das Grauen nur weitaus vielschichtiger konstruiert, als in anderen Werken. Das macht die Angelegenheit auch noch einmal so kalt. Neben THE KILLER INSIDE ME und dem später entstandenen POP. 1280 ist THE GETAWAY sicher jenes Werk des Autors, das ihn zu mehr als einen Noirschriftsteller macht, nämlich zu einem gnadenlosen Chronisten eines düsteren Amerikas in dunklen Zeiten. -
I've liked every Jim Thompson book I've read and I liked this one about the same right up until the last chapter when it it went sideways into some alternate universe. I'm pretty sure the plot idea here is a journey into hell and they end up in an interesting kind of hell, but the alteration from noir realism into a fantasy was too abrupt and threw me completely out of the story. I started chapter 14, the last chapter, read a page or two, went back to see if I'd accidentally missed some pages or a chapter, found I hadn't. Read the same couple of pages over, watched it get progressively more and more like some kind of Poesque horror story, and just shook my head. I don't know what Thompson was thinking. Maybe other readers wouldn't be troubled by this abrupt change, but I'm afraid I was. It wasn't the change to fantasy/horror that threw me, but the lack of continuity and consistency with the ending. You're experience may differ.
I understand there's a movie made from this book. I haven't seen it so I don't know if it similar. -
COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK 56 (of 250)
"The Getaway" has the strangest ending of all crime novels I've read during this readathon. I can't give it away, but I'll say it's absolutely worth the read, besides the fact the entire book is very good.
HOOK - 3 stars: "Carter 'Doc' McCoy had left a morning call for six o'clock, and he was reaching for the telephone the moment the night clerk rang. Had had always awakened easily and pleasantly; a man with not a regret for the past...Twelve years of prison routine had merely molded his natural tendencies into habit." What begins as a very lacklustre opening paragraph takes a quick turn toward "keep reading."
PACE - 4: 3 stars for the opening 30 pages, then 5 stars for the next 150, so I'll give the pace of the novel 4 stars.
PLOT - 4: A getaway from a robbery occurs early. But it's not just officials chasing Doc and his wife: there is another set of crazed criminals involved. And, are Doc and his wife trying to escape each other?
CHARACTERS - 4: Doc, our man of habits, is relentlessly vicious. His wife, Carol, has 'No alias, Photos and fingerprints reclaimed by court order. 3 arrests; no trial or convictions. Suspicion of complicity in murder, armed robbery in consort with husband. Aproach with caution." Carol is a slippery one, certainly. Then there is Rudy, who upon awakening, "sat up groaning...and began a frantic pummeling and massaging of his ribs. They had all been broken [repeatedly] before he as old enough to run. By now, they had long since grown together in a twisted mass of cartilage, bone and scar tissue which ached horribly..." Jackie, Rudy's partner in crime, is "a little slow on the trigger..." Beynon, an attorney and chairman of the 'pardon and parole board' had sold Doc's pardon to Doc for 20k, 5k up front and a promise to pay 15K after Doc's next robbery. Makes one realize how cheap some people will sell out for, but then again maybe in 1958 20K meant something significant. When Rudy is shot and alone, "in his mind...Was the only person he had ever loved, or been loved by, Little Max." Rather, Herr Doktor Max Vonderscheid, physician to criminals on the run, a man never able to say "no to a man in need." Some love story, huh?
ATMOSPHERE - 4: Banks, car escapes, hideouts and "El Ray", a city south of the border that all criminals dream about, a hidden and permanent getaway with a twist that'll leave you shuddering.
SUMMARY - 3.8. This one's a cut above regular 'escape' stories, with a very good cast and a guaranteed denouement that sends shivers up and down reader's spines. And this isn't even close to my favorite Thompson novel (not one, but two more are coming up in my countdown!) -
Sort of a 3.5 star read, I think. The final chapter is a bit WTF and comes from nowhere, but there's an energy to the writing that's very different in style from crime novels of the previous decade.
I really liked the way the novel comprises entirely a scenario that would only be the final third of most crime novels. There's very little about the planning of the heist and we're thrown in with the characters with minimal background info.
Every character is utterly despicable in every way, which is refreshing at first, but grows a little wearisome.
I found that immediate I'd finished the book I rated it highly, but after sitting with the memory for a few days, it's felt less enjoyable.
Anyway: different, exciting and interesting.
