Newton Thornburg (1929–2011)
Author of Cutter and Bone
About the Author
Image credit: Courtesy of Serpent's Tail Press
Works by Newton Thornburg
Gentleman Born 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1929
- Date of death
- 2011-05-09
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Illinois Wesleyan College
University of Iowa - Relationships
- Larson, Karin (deceased wife)
- Short biography
- Newton Kendall Thornburg was born in Harvey, Illinois in 1929 and lived most of his early life in Chicago Heights, a suburb south of the major city. In 1986 his "lovely long marriage" to Karin, his wife of 33 years, ended when she died, he has lost a beloved son to alcoholism and in 1998 Thornburg suffered a stroke that has left him paralysed down his left side. Living with government help in a retirement home near Seattle, he is wheelchair bound, unable to walk, even the most simple tasks a trial. "Sometimes", he tells me early on, "it takes me a while to get to the phone."
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Harvey, Illinois, USA (birthplace)
Chicago Heights, Illinois, USA (childhood) - Associated Place (for map)
- Illinois, USA
Members
Reviews
Newton Thornburg is one of the great writers of the late twentieth century and should be better known and more read than he is. Many of his novels explore themes of rootlessness and disconnectedness. Often, his characters are at wit's ends, unemployed, puttering about, getting into trouble. His novels, especially his crime novels, are not your typical shoot-em-up stuff, but are multi-layered journeys into complex characters.
Valhalla is more of a dystopian future novel than a crime novel, show more although many of the same elements found in Thornburgh's crime novels are found here, including the moral quandaries, the rootlessness, the jealousies, the lusts, the wanting to prove oneself over and over again. Valhalla is about a world that has fallen apart. The economy has collapsed to the point that money is worthless except to start a fire. Violent, lawless, ruthless inner-city gangs have taken over the cities and are now roaming the countryside preying on the few communities of survivors.
The main character of the story is Stone, who has managed to develop a few survival skills, which are put to a test when he meets a trio of elite, wealthy persons who have crashed in a private plane. The interdependence and jealousies that develop between this small group are intense and explode when they sort of join a larger community.
There are many dystopian novels that have been out for decades of such bleak future worlds such as Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold and Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. More recently, many of us have watched The Walking Dead. There is a lot to understand about human nature when faced with survival and desperation and what we are made of and what it does to us and our character. Thus, even though this is a setting that has been explored by many, it is certainly worth exploring again in Valhalla and few have ever written about such a bleak future as well as Thornburgh has done here.
On the way, the novel looks into such ideas as morality, guilt, capital punishment, racism, jealousy, and leadership. Every one of the characters in this book seems to develop over time and become more complex. It is without question an absolutely outstanding book and well worth reading. show less
Valhalla is more of a dystopian future novel than a crime novel, show more although many of the same elements found in Thornburgh's crime novels are found here, including the moral quandaries, the rootlessness, the jealousies, the lusts, the wanting to prove oneself over and over again. Valhalla is about a world that has fallen apart. The economy has collapsed to the point that money is worthless except to start a fire. Violent, lawless, ruthless inner-city gangs have taken over the cities and are now roaming the countryside preying on the few communities of survivors.
The main character of the story is Stone, who has managed to develop a few survival skills, which are put to a test when he meets a trio of elite, wealthy persons who have crashed in a private plane. The interdependence and jealousies that develop between this small group are intense and explode when they sort of join a larger community.
There are many dystopian novels that have been out for decades of such bleak future worlds such as Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold and Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. More recently, many of us have watched The Walking Dead. There is a lot to understand about human nature when faced with survival and desperation and what we are made of and what it does to us and our character. Thus, even though this is a setting that has been explored by many, it is certainly worth exploring again in Valhalla and few have ever written about such a bleak future as well as Thornburgh has done here.
On the way, the novel looks into such ideas as morality, guilt, capital punishment, racism, jealousy, and leadership. Every one of the characters in this book seems to develop over time and become more complex. It is without question an absolutely outstanding book and well worth reading. show less
Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg is a 1976 thriller about two men, one a dropout gigolo called Richard Bone and the other, Alex Cutter, a drunken, one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged Vietnam vet. They live together with Alex’s druggie girlfriend and mother of Alex’s baby, and hustle to bring in enough money for booze, drugs and food.
One night while driving home, Boone witnesses a murderer disposing of his victim's body, and although he really didn’t get a good look at the killer, when show more he sees a picture of a wealthy president of a corporation, J.J. Wolfe, he is pretty sure he is looking at the murderer. Cutter decides that they should blackmail J. J. Wolfe and make some big cash. But while Cutter goes about gathering information and causing havoc he is also exposing them to a killer’s scrutiny.
This was a fascinating read. Cutter is full of self-destructive impulses and could be very vicious in his treatment of others. Bone is trying to escape the idea of a mundane American Dream and craves freedom but can’t quite shake his ingrained sense of responsibility. Mo comes from a well-to-do family but has dropped out so far that she now lives her life in a pill and wine induced haze. I don’t believe I have read this book before but I am pretty sure I must have seen the 1981 film starring Jeff Bridges as John Bone as I felt an immediate sense of familiarity with these characters. The author has created a very good thriller but Cutter and Bone is also a book that uses dark humor, violence and a smidgen of sympathy to show the impact that the Vietnam war had on these particular lost souls. show less
One night while driving home, Boone witnesses a murderer disposing of his victim's body, and although he really didn’t get a good look at the killer, when show more he sees a picture of a wealthy president of a corporation, J.J. Wolfe, he is pretty sure he is looking at the murderer. Cutter decides that they should blackmail J. J. Wolfe and make some big cash. But while Cutter goes about gathering information and causing havoc he is also exposing them to a killer’s scrutiny.
This was a fascinating read. Cutter is full of self-destructive impulses and could be very vicious in his treatment of others. Bone is trying to escape the idea of a mundane American Dream and craves freedom but can’t quite shake his ingrained sense of responsibility. Mo comes from a well-to-do family but has dropped out so far that she now lives her life in a pill and wine induced haze. I don’t believe I have read this book before but I am pretty sure I must have seen the 1981 film starring Jeff Bridges as John Bone as I felt an immediate sense of familiarity with these characters. The author has created a very good thriller but Cutter and Bone is also a book that uses dark humor, violence and a smidgen of sympathy to show the impact that the Vietnam war had on these particular lost souls. show less
I originally bought this book because every review I read of it talked about how good it was and called it something like a lost classic. When it was first published it got rave reviews and continues to have more popularity in the UK than in the US. When Newton Thornburg died very little mention was made of it in the US but several large obits ran in the UK. With that background, I started to read.
The two primary characters have few admirable qualities, morally or ethically, and the story is show more mostly about their plan to commit a felony; however, they are likable and even their plans for a felony carry some twisted moral justification. What makes the characters work is that they seem real if not admirable or likable. I knew people who were very much like each of the main characters; one was a college roommate and the others were guys I served with in the infantry, who came back and just couldn't fit in.
On occasion, the descriptions of their characters were just about to go to the point where my credibility would be exceeded when Thornburg drew back and they remained within bounds of the people I had known. For a 38 year old book, the insights it offers about where the US was, and is, going as a nation are remarkable. Thornburg pretty much got the generation to generation change right and saw what was coming. On a number of other occasions Thornburg has the characters change course or change their minds and he handles it in a convincing manner and better than anyone else I can remember; he also does it in a way the made me think that it was how most people operate in similar situations.
My only real complaint: The novel is two paragraphs too long. It didn't need to have the conclusion/wrap up that it does and would be better without the conclusion it has.
Highly recommended. show less
The two primary characters have few admirable qualities, morally or ethically, and the story is show more mostly about their plan to commit a felony; however, they are likable and even their plans for a felony carry some twisted moral justification. What makes the characters work is that they seem real if not admirable or likable. I knew people who were very much like each of the main characters; one was a college roommate and the others were guys I served with in the infantry, who came back and just couldn't fit in.
On occasion, the descriptions of their characters were just about to go to the point where my credibility would be exceeded when Thornburg drew back and they remained within bounds of the people I had known. For a 38 year old book, the insights it offers about where the US was, and is, going as a nation are remarkable. Thornburg pretty much got the generation to generation change right and saw what was coming. On a number of other occasions Thornburg has the characters change course or change their minds and he handles it in a convincing manner and better than anyone else I can remember; he also does it in a way the made me think that it was how most people operate in similar situations.
My only real complaint: The novel is two paragraphs too long. It didn't need to have the conclusion/wrap up that it does and would be better without the conclusion it has.
Highly recommended. show less
What an astonishing book this is - really not a crime novel, although I can see why they would market it as such. It's more like a bleak, understated inversion of the classic pulp novel. Whereas a pulp writer would have turned the bizarre partnership of drifter Bone and limbless, eyeless Vietnam vet into one where Bone was the dominant partner, instead Bone is like countless pulp heroes but without any sense of direction or purpose. Instead Cutter dominates almost every page of this book, show more like some ghastly, ghoulish twisted vengeful angel. It's a hard book to *like* - there's no easy answers to anything, Bone is about as close to a sympathetic character you get even though he's a spineless, self hating drop out - but by golly is it an easy book to admire. I really cannot remember ever having read anything quite like this before. There's a peculiarity to the prose, a strange atmosphere to the whole book which sometimes makes it difficult to enjoy, but certainly leaves images and ideas darting around your head for days afterwards. Stunningly good. show less
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- Rating
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