Hardcore

Well, according to the faceless person at Reed Business Information, he is, but one will be hard pressed to buy that kind of hogwash after reading this small collection. I'll refrain from comparing Thompson to Chandler and Hammet but I will say that I like all three and while the other two made a name for themselves during their lifetimes Thompson is being rediscovered posthumously and I think there is good reason for that.Thorp nails it in his introduction. Thompson was simply too brutal and too honest to appeal to a less desensitized generation. Can anyone honestly imagine a novel whose protagonist's motives revolve around his lack of a penis selling like hot cakes 40-50 years ago? Unlikely. As is the case with the better crime novelists, it is not the plot that hooks you but the characters and Thompson has got characters. The sort of characters that you can love, feel sorry for, identify with and recoil at. You will see the writer himself in one of the stories. Maybe in two of them? You will see a young Hanibal Lecter. The hapless car salesman from Fargo in another. Miller's Crossing's Tom - who've you've already seen in Red Harvest and The Glass Key will show up...This collection of stories is my first introduction to Thompson's work and as a collection designed to introduce, it works admirably. The Kill Off has the best piece of crime writing since Red Harvest (Marmaduke's book), Nothing Man has the aforementioned "man in all ways but one" and Bad Boy is an autobigraphy - I do not know, nor care if it's highly fictionalized, that's not the point.The first story, "Kill Off", is written in the first person and that's nothing new in the crime world. What is new is that there are many persons who speak and each of them serves to advance the story to its climax (all except Marmaduke). Thompson handles all of the characters well (with the possible exception of Hattie - I'm betting that's why her chapter is the smallest) and gives each their own voice and personality."Nothing Man" is also written in the first person but one never knows exactly what's happening because the protagonist is walking around half drunk and cannot account for his actions. There is almost a Kafkaesque feel to the story because of both the unknowable and the grotesque elements."Bad Boy", as I said, is a biography of sorts. Not the kind that measures time by dates and number but by events. It reads very much like Tom Sawyer in parts and while it never gets as raunchy nor as brutal as I suspect it could, it holds its own and doesn't let one down. It's absolutely amazing to be taken back in time 80 years and find a connection to a person you never knew...and Jim Thompson is good enough to do that.A closing note - Jim Thompson co-wrote "Paths Of Glory", which may very well be the finest anti-war movie ever made. If that doesn't convince you that you should try him nothing will. But if you do, you will be richly rewarded.