The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

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Jim Thompson,"Recoil"

Started May 31 � Finished May 31, 2002; 185 pages. Posted 01 June 2002

Hmmm.

With as great as I thought all of the other Thompson books were, I was bound to hit a clunker at some time. I guess this was it.

Don�t get me wrong; it was good but simply not on par with �The Grifters� or �The Killer Inside Me.� The scenario of a none-too-bright guy getting caught up in a web of lies and people trying to manipulate and double cross each other just didn�t pan out very well in this outing, and instead of having a shocking surprise ending this finished up like a bad Hollywood film, complete with the hero and the crazy mixed-up dame flying off together to live happily ever after.

Actually, the ending reminded me a lot of A Fish Called Wanda and since that was a comedy, whereas this is supposed to be serious, it made this book all the more goofy.

Jim Thompson may be able to pull off a lot of things, but goofy is not one of them.


Rating: Worth working in a used bookstore and getting for really cheap.

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