Now and on Earth

It's 1942 and Jim Dillon, 35, is a man on the verge of a crack-up, driven to drink and hounded to distraction by nothing more - or less - than the desperation of working-class family life. Forced out of a lucrative writing job with a literary foundation, he takes up an offer to drive a car out to California for some quick cash and the chance, perhaps, at a writing gig in Hollywood. But his wildly dysfunctional extended family insists on coming for the ride. The writing jobs fizzle and Jim's forced to take menial work in an aircraft factory ... Such is the setup for Thompson's first and generally least appreciated novel. It's quite different to his later crime classics and is probably of most interest to those wanting to explore the Thompson oeuvre in its completeness or probe his early writings for autobiographical resonances. Others will probably ignore it altogether, which is a shame. For between the extended episodes of semi-slapstick comedy and detailed descriptions of workplace drudgery, Thompson shoves his hand deep into the wound of communal poverty and pulls out some gems. Two scenes stand out: Dillon's recovery of his daughter Shannon from the drugstore in Chapter 11 wherein he wrestles with the fatherly angst of wanting-and-not-wanting this child (this episode also explains the intriguing title); and nine-year-old Jo's simulation of sex in Chapter 14, which is at once hilarious and heartbreaking for what it implies she has witnessed in the home. In these moments, Thompson's language becomes elevated without being pretentious. More than anything, it's devastatingly accurate, evoking precisely the kind of empathy such scenes require. Stephen King's introduction to this Vintage Crime / Black Lizard edition is just what you'd expect from King: sly, off-topic, a little superficial, but - as he says at the outset - it's an appreciation not a thesis, and his comments on Thompson are interesting nonetheless.

This was Jim Thompson's first novel & it was a great start. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because I've read a couple of the others & they're better (if, for example, you read "The Killer Inside Me" I guarantee you'll want to read more of what Thompson wrote). Highly recommend reading Robert Polito's outstanding biography of Jim Thompson, "Savage Art," early on if you get even a teeny bit hooked on Thompson. Polito did a wonderful job putting everything in context, not just of Thompson's life but of the times in which he lived & the book is just a super companion to a serious reading of Thompson from which you'll learn much about, for example, how much of "Now and On Earth" is autobiographical. As for the novel, the descriptions of an aircraft manufacturing plant drag a bit at times but it's otherwise a wonderfully dark portrait of a struggling family and, in particular, a struggling young writer not unlike the author. Don't read the book expecting typical crime fiction because that's not at all what you get--it's not at all like Thompson classics such as "The Killer Inside Me." What you get here is really an extended vignette or character study (the plot is of minimal importance) & it's excellent.

Now and On Earth is a personal favorite of mine. While this book is'nt the typical noir fare, its not about committing crimes or stopping them, instead its about a dysfunctional family in wartime California. It's a wonderful read, with fully developed characters and situations, written in a gritty noir style. This book also has a well written introduction by Stephen King as well.

James Dillon, a successful author, would rather crawl around chipping up plaster than write another book. He periodically regurgitates blood and binges on cheap alcohol. His girl bit his wife in the leg. His mom has varicose veins, and the wife reads trash. The son always tells the same joke. It's dangerous be a former communist in San Diego, but Now and on Earth has nothing to do with that. Thompson borrows from the lives of his family and immortalizes both them and the WWII aircraft industry.