The Criminal
by Jim Thompson
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Everyone in Kenton Hills knows that short-tempered, tongue-tied Bob Talbert wasn't the one responsible for the brutal crime that ended Josie Eddleman's life. Nevermind that he was the last one to see her alive. But in a town filled with the likes of an amoral tabloid reporter known only as The Captain, a district attorney who'll do anything for a confession, and Bob's parents, who care as little for Bob as they do for each other, guilt and innocence are little more than a matter of show more perspective. In a masterfully woven tapestry of multiple points of view, The Criminal explores the nature of guilt and responsibility in a psychological thriller of an entire town under the spell of an act of brutal violence. Jim Thompson unlike you're ever read him before. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
"The Criminal" is a terrific piece of literature that is an entire departure from the norm of Jim Thompson"s work. The story is not centered around the ravings of some twisted, one-legged psychopath. Rather, it is told from more than half a dozen points of view, a writing technique that is not uncommon, but rarely done as well as here. What's really great about this book is how deftly Thompson speaks with people's voices. You can really believe you are hearing these people narrate as they talk about the mundane and go off on meaningless tangents. Plotwise, it is a story about a small town, about seemingly friendly neighbors, about juvenile delinquency, about young teenagers, about a seductive young teenager, about jumping to show more conclusions, about the corruption of the news business, and the empty promises of Justice. show less
A teenage boy is wrongly arrested for the rape and murder of his girlfriend, and becomes a pawn as the adults exploit the case for their own ends. As Wikipedia says "There are no good guys in Thompson's literature; most everyone is abusive, opportunistic, or simply biding time until able to be so." A dark and depressing tale, with a jaundiced view of humanity. Good stuff!
Difficult to believe any author could create so complete, so complex a world in just 115 pages. Excellent novel.
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Author Information
58+ Works 14,567 Members
American novelist and screenwriter Jim Thompson was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma on September 27, 1906. In Fort Worth, Texas during prohibition, he worked as a bellboy at the Hotel Texas for two years where he earned up to $300 a week by supplying hotel patrons with bootleg liquor, heroin, and marijuana. During the Depression, he worked with the show more Oklahoma Federal Writers Project and was a member of the Communist Party from 1935 to 1938. During World War II, he worked at an aircraft factory where he was investigated by the FBI for his Communist Party affiliation. His first novel, Now and on Earth, was published in 1942. He wrote more than thirty novels during his lifetime and most of them were paperback pulp crime novels. His best known works are The Killer Inside Me, Savage Night, A Hell of a Woman, and Pop. 1280. In 1955, he moved to Hollywood, California to write screenplays with Stanley Kubrick. Thompson helped write The Killing and Paths of Glory. He died after a series of strokes in Los Angeles, California on April 7, 1977. His long-time alcoholism and recent self-inflicted starvation contributed to his death. His death attracted little attention because none of his novels were in print in the U.S. at that time. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- El criminal
- Original title
- The criminal
- Original publication date
- 1953
- Original language*
- Inglés
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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Statistics
- Members
- 306
- Popularity
- 104,374
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.44)
- Languages
- 5 — Catalan, English, French, German, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 2
