Recoil

'Recoil' is in some ways classic Jim Thompson noir. The characters and dialogue are delicious 1950s trash. The women are floosies, the men are dopes. In 'Recoil' we have a lame brained ex-con who was released from prison courtesy of a guy with whom he had yet to meet. This guy turns out to be a nasty piece of work, and the company he keeps isn't much better. Soon the ex-con realizes something is wrong. Was he being set up just to crash and return to prison? All is revealed in the end. Yes, the ending is kind of goofy ... as if the author just smashed the words together arbitrarily. But this is not uncommon with Thompson novels. Bottom line: certainly not among the better Jim Thompson novels. Nonetheless it is the sort of fast read perfect for a rainy afternoon or for that long, boring flight.

This is just an average Jim Thompson book, which still makes it better than a lot of the junk out there right now, but not as good as "The Killer Inside Me" or "The Getaway". It's nonetheless worth reading, and as a woman, reading Thompson is such a treat. I get a lot of flack for saying this, and many women disagree, but his female characters are amazing. I just love them all. They're so brilliantly written, and besides the fact that his books are based on Greek mythology (ripping off the classics is a tried and true way of writing a great story) that's the main reason why I read him. This book is no letdown in the awesome babes department. Two very unforgettable criminal-type women inhabit the pages of this book.

This book speeds along almost as an afterthought. The plot is slick and sharp and a great deal of fun. The characters are the same somewhat stupid lowlifes that Thompson always wrote about. They have a subtle uniqueness that certainly separates them from the protagonists of many of his better know works. It is 178 pages long. 170 of those pages are wonderful. Then, likely at the insistance of some lamebrained publishing house who didn't like all the darkness and sordidness of what was happening in the story, there is this absolutely unrealistic ending in regards to everything that has happened before and the logical direction such useless people's lives would take. It ends on an up note (something that in general I am not a fan of, but even for those who are, at least a happy ending should make sense in the lives of these characters we have gotten to know). There is even a somewhat cynical epilogue two page final chapter that wraps things up so neat and nice and tidy for the hopeless, slimy "heroes" of the book. It doesn't make sense. It should have ended with the likely outcome of any scumbag in such a situation. Life goes on, they are fogotten and nothing good will ever enter their lives again.

"Recoil" was the first Jim Thompson book I ever read, but it certainly won't be the last. I began reading it late one night, and finished it the next morning after only a few hours sleep. Intense, concise, surprising, noir-istic, hard boiled. These words barely begin to describe Thompson's writing. When Thompson describes a river contaminated with oil from a nearby pump, an acrid sulfer-like scent tickles you nostrils. To label Thompson a "Mystery" writer is easy, yet also a disservice to his real literary talent. To not, is criminal. Sure, some characters are plot-devices, but all are so real, you'd swear you'd met them somewhere. Hammet, Chandler, Thompson. I didn't believe it before, but I do now. The man belongs with the masters. Readers of Grisham, Turow, Crichton and their ilk should try Thompson. He chops away the pretentiousness and tedious page-filler, and turns in a thriller twice as good and a third as long.