Clean Break by Lionel White

 

(pb; 1955)

Review

Fans of Richard Stark’s twenty-four-book Parker series might enjoy Clean Break, with its blunt, succinct descriptions and dialogue, its swift pacing, its character-based twists, all of which start from the first word and doesn’t let up until the last one. This is a great, blueprint-for-the-hardboiled-novel book, one worth owning.

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The resulting film, The Killing, was released stateside on June 6, 1956. Stanley Kubrick directed it, also serving as co-author (with Jim Thompson) of the screenplay.

Sterling Hayden played Johnny Clay, ex-con brainchild of the heist. Coleen Gray played Fay, Johnny’s girlfriend.

Jay C. Flippen played Marvin Unger, court stenographer-turned-heister. Elisha Cook Jr. played track cashier George Peatty. Marie Windsor played Sherry Peatty, George’s bored, faithless wife. Vince Edwards played Val Cannon, Sherry’s secret lover.

Ted de Corsia, billed as DeCorsia, played debt-saddled Patrolman Randy Kennan. Jay Adler played “Leo the Loan Shark.” Joe Sawyer played Mike O’Reilly (cinematic stand-in for “Big Mike” Henty in the source novel). Timothy Carey played creepy sniper Nikki Arcane. Joe Turkel, billed as Joseph Turkel, played Tiny.

Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson

(pb; 1964)

From the back cover

“Nick Corey is a terrible sheriff. He doesn’t solve problems, enforce rules, or arrest criminals. He knows that nobody in Potts County actually wants to follow the law, and he is perfectly content lazing about, eating five meals a day, and sleeping with all the eligible women.

“Still, Nick has some very complex situations to deal with. Two local pimps have been sassing him, ruining his already tattered reputation. His girlfriend, Rose, is being terrorized by her husband. And then there’s his wife and her brother Lennie, who won’t stop troubling Nick’s already stressed mind. Are they a little too close for a brother and sister?

“With an election coming up, Nick needs to fix his problems and fast. Because the one thing Nick does know is that he will do anything to stay sheriff. And, as it turns out, Sheriff Nick Corey is not nearly as dumb as he seems.”

Review

Pop. 1280 is one of my favorite Thompson novels─it is sly, darkly hilarious and reworks the Southern, moralistic crime and punishment set-up by smashing it and putting it back together again in a twisted patchwork fashion. This is a masterful book, one of my favorite reads of 2019.

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson

(pb; 1952)

From the back cover:

"Lou Ford is the deputy sheriff of a small town in Texas. The worst thing people can say against him is that he's a little slow and a little boring. But, then, most people don't know about the sickness -- the sickness that almost got Lou put away when he was younger. The sickness that is about to surface again."

Review:

Killer is a brisk paced, often chilling first-person account, seen from the point of view of the murder-minded Lou Ford. This account takes place during Ford's latest round of assault, robbery and killing. Harsh, gets-under-your-skin stuff that made this reader want to be a little less trusting than usual when dealing with someone who seems exceptionally kind or easy-going.

Check this out.

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Two film versions resulted from this novel. Both versions kept the book's title.

The first version was released stateside in October 1976. Burt Kennedy directed the film, from a screenplay by Ed Mann and Robert Chamblee.

Stacy Keach played Lou Ford. Susan Tyrell played Joyce Lakeland. Tisha Sterling played Amy Stanton. Keenan Wynn played Chester Conway. Don Stroud played Elmer. Charles McGraw played Howard Hendricks. John Dehner played Bob Maples. John Carradine played Dr. Smith. Royal Dano played Father.

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The second version was released stateside on June 8, 2010. Michael Winterbottom directed, from a script by he co-authored with John Curran.

Casey Affleck played Lou Ford. Kate Hudson played Amy Stanton. Jessica Alba played Joyce Lakeland. Ned Beatty played Chester Conway. Elias Koteas played Joe Rothman. Tom Bower played Sheriff Bob Maples. Simon Baker played Howard Hendricks. Bill Pullman played Billy Boy Walker. Matthew Maher played Deputy Jeff Plummer.

Roughneck, by Jim Thompson

(hb; 1954)

Review:

Roughneck reads like a thinly veiled autobiography. Spanning eleven years, it opens in August 1929, in Oklahoma City, with Thompson, his mother and his sister broke and starving, with a broke-down car. Jim soon takes a series of dead-end jobs (e.g., morgue night attendant; a “batch man” in a bakery; building an ill-advised oil rig), and hobnobs with some curious people like: Trixie, a moronic, tie-selling whore with over-sized feet; Allie Ivers, a confidence man and friend of long-standing; a psychic farmer who knows when people need help, and quietly arranges it beforehand.

By 1936, Thompson is married, with three kids, and getting paid for his writing, well on his way to leaving behind the bad luck that's plagued him most of his life – or so he thinks.

A sense of quirky fatalism saturates this work. It's often laugh-out-loud funny, in a blackish way, with a strong comedic rhythm (Thompson sets up the situations, then louses them up with good intentions).

Good read, this, and different than most of Thompson's other works (which is primarily noir). It's not his best, but it's clever, raw and honest.