The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

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Jim Thompson, �A Hell of a Woman�

Started February 2 � Finished February 2, 2002; 185 pages. Posted 4 February 2002

Speaking of good movies, has anybody not seen �The Grifters�? Man, that�s a good flick. Good acting, the tension runs high, the twist ending is excellent and it�s not pulled out of the writers� asses, like the endings of the second and third �Scream� movies, where everything is explained at the end like a bad James Bond film.

I first heard about Jim Thompson after I saw that movie, since I hadn�t noticed who the writer was when I saw it. He was being praised in Murder Can Be Fun in the �Read Hard or Die� column (a phrase I seem to be taking to heart). When he mentioned �The Grifters,� I said to myself, �So that�s who wrote that! I should check his stuff out!� And then I thought I should stop talking to myself and go outside and meet people.

But Thompson stuff is not that easy to find, as he�s achieved cult status. I finally picked up a copy of �The Grifters� sometime in 1996 or so, and thought it was just okay, not nearly as powerful as the film. (When people quote the oft-repeated line about the film never being as good as the novel I use the this example, along with �The Shawshank Redemption� and more recently, �The Fellowship of the Ring.� �One Flew Over the Cuckoo�s Nest� is in a different category since they are very different, but both are excellent. Anyhoo...)

So I figured Thompson was just one of those genres I didn�t get into. But curiosity got the better of me and I picked up another book by him (�The Killer Inside Me�) and just marveled at his control and use of simplistic characters to build dread.

Yeah, he�s good, I admit it. Part of it is his ability to make it seem real, and the other strength is every novel has a new set of characters. When these genre detective writers have the same character get into scrapes again and again you just lose the suspension of belief. (Here�s another highbrow literary joke: Sue Grafton�s next novel is reported to be F is for Formulaic.)

The other strength is that his books prey on our weak moral values, and you can see how you may find yourself in the same situation.

As for �A Hell of a Woman,� I kept thinking about the Coen brothers' latest film, �The Man Who Wasn�t There.� Reviewers keep mentioning Dean Cain as the inspiration, but damned if I can�t see it coming from this. And that�s high praise, indeed.


Rating: I want to say it�s worth buying new, but I can�t do it. Search amongst the used stores.

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