The Grifters

Jim Thompson is depressing. Really depressing. His noir is beyond dark. It's a black hole from which no one can escape.

There are no redeemable characters in this book. Everyone is mentally unstable and folded in on themselves. They want to care about something other than themselves, but they have no idea how to do that. So, they float through existence, destroying the lives of others, blaming everyone else for their mistakes, taking what they think is theirs for reasons they can't explain.

If you have untreated depression, don't read this book. Just don't.

The Grifters by Jim Thompson is a powerful story about life on the downside, a life of cons and rackets. The story focuses on Roy Dillon, a successful grifter at the short con, his mother, Lily who works for the mob and his girlfriend, Moira, no stranger to working a swindle herself.

Roy takes a blow to the stomach while working one of his cons, and as the pain gets worse, his mother drops by for an unexpected visit. She rushes him to the hospital and essentially saves his life as he was bleeding out internally. Roy is not especially thankful for Lily’s intervention as their relationship has never been an easy one. Giving birth to him at 14, she has never been the “motherly” sort. Lily and Roy’s girlfriend, Moira, take an show more immediate dislike for one another, each well able to see what the other is about. Roy has been thinking of getting out of the criminal life, going straight but with these two women around him his plans don’t have much of a chance. While the book is told from Roy’s point of view, it is his mother, Lily who dominates. She’s brutal and manipulative, getting what she wants either through her brains or her body, or simply with threats of violence that she is well able to follow through on.

Thompson’s books almost always have plots that rely on paranoia, sexually dysfunctional relationships and the choices people make when their backs are put to the wall and The Grifters excels at this, describing the constant struggle to get ahead, the urge to go legit versus the joy making a fast buck, a lifestyle of ups and downs against the boredom of normality. The author brings these dark, damaged characters to life in this subtle yet savage morality tale and is yet another reason why this author is so highly rated for his hard-boiled literature. show less

I have never read anybody who comes close to Thompson for his descriptions of violence, descriptions which in most books I skip for their tedium. He makes you feel like you are there, being buried alive, having your throat cut. He really is remarkable. But this is hard stuff to bring to the screen, the visual impact will never be the same as the written one. It isn’t the only problem with the movie version. The commentator introducing the movie to us, part of a crime noir weekend, said the Donald Westlake was not happy with the script. I don’t blame him, and I think that he showed better judgement of his own work than did those subsequently who think he did a fine job.

Rest here:

show more target="_top">http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/the-grifters-by-jim-thomps... show less

Interesting. There is a lot of Oedipal weirdness in here. It’s also pretty dated. That was what I wanted, but I got more than expected. I have been in a lot of bars, some of those before ubiquitous cell phones, and no one has ever offered to gamble with me and I would be immediately suspicious of anyone who did. I get that the protagonist is naturally charming and that maybe it was a more trusting time, but his bread and butter grifts seem unlikely to bring in much cash.

I do like a hard boiled crime move and this was my first time reading Jim Thompson and I will give him another go. I liked the writing.

A wild, unpredictable crime-noir tale that reads like Hammett or Chandler with the foot on the pedal and no working breaks. The loopiness of the plot could swing this toward either 2/5 or 4/5, and I'm choosing the latter because, while this isn't a classically excellent novel, it's memorably unique.

The Grifters is an exercise in animal behavior, specifically the reptilian overtures of homo sapiens. It is a feral book. What saves it, what elevates the narrative from the primordial is its kinetic codes of communication. The novel triumphs through its five or six principal conversations. The characters expand outside of type and blur our ready verdicts. There are human truths being issued from the mouths of vipers: assassins, certainly, but ones with souls.

The film adaptation reveals the central set pieces, with one notable exception. It rained here this a.m. before the Manchester Derby, the solace of Roy Dillon was illuminating by contrast.

I have never read anybody who comes close to Thompson for his descriptions of violence, descriptions which in most books I skip for their tedium. He makes you feel like you are there, being buried alive, having your throat cut. He really is remarkable. But this is hard stuff to bring to the screen, the visual impact will never be the same as the written one. It isn’t the only problem with the movie version. The commentator introducing the movie to us, part of a crime noir weekend, said the Donald Westlake was not happy with the script. I don’t blame him, and I think that he showed better judgement of his own work than did those subsequently who think he did a fine job.

Rest here:

show more target="_top">http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/the-grifters-by-jim-thomps... show less