The Nothing Man

In "Nothing Man', Jim Thompson invites a long walk with Clinton Brown but he forces the reader to look inside the reader's own mind. In startling murder after murder Author Thompson turns the reader into a long thread which he interweaves with the thread that is Clint "Brownie" Brown. i could not divorce myself from Clint Brown. There were times I wanted to hold Clint Brown close and comfort him yet felt the necessity of keeping one hand close to my concealed Charter Arms Pink Lady .38.

This will surely draw some flak, but I prefer "The Nothing Man" to "The Killer Inside Me," the novel most people see as Thompson's best. "Killer" might be Thompson's literary masterpiece, but "Nothing" is more enjoyable as entertainment and more gripping as a crime novel. In both cases, Thompson uses a first-person narrator who commits murder. In "Killer," sheriff's deputy Lou Ford speaks in cliches, a device that's quite effective for this novel and humorous, while in "Nothing," newsman Clinton Brown addresses the reader with wit and insight into the world around him, which makes for a much more engaging narrator than Ford could ever be. Of course, that last point is part of the effect Thompson wants with Ford: the man is dull and would be of no interest to anyone if he wasn't a murderer. Brown, on the other hand, is far from dull and is interesting as a person and not just as a murderer. Brown's sense of humor is often bitter and usually vicious, and it suits him, his situation and "Nothing" perfectly. His description of a minor character and her fetish for mayonaise ranks, in terms of food-related humor, with Jack Nicholson's quest for toast in "Five Easy Pieces." Brown rarely lets slide an opportunity to give the needle to two other characters, his editor, Dave, and Pacific City's police chief, Lem Stukey. Stuckey, in particular, but most of the other characters, as well, are extremely well-developed and stand on their own within the world in which "Nothing" takes place. Consider that the novel is narrated in the first person by a dyspeptic drunkard who practices frequent acts of cruelty against the people he knows, and yet Thompson still manages to draw his major characters from multiple angles. These characters and Pacific City could all be the major elements of another novel, with or without Brown, had Thompson ever wanted to revisit them or the place. The murders have a wonderful feel to them. Brown doesn't have the hard-boiled coldness to dispatch his victims quickly or simply; he acts rashly and overheatedly twice and convinces himself he's a cool customer the third time. Bless him, too, he tries so hard to make himself look like a serial killer."Nothing" does have some flaws, including a tendency toward convenience and coincidence in some of the plotting, but it overcomes that on the strength of Brown's voice and how Thompson uses it to create a vivid depiction of Pacific City and its citizens.

This extraordinairy piece of fiction stands as one of Thompson's best. The novel poses the timeless question: what makes a man? The central guy is a re-write man on a newspaper staff and surprise surprise an alcoholic. Murder runs rampant in the Nothing Man but with special twists. One of Thompson's great first person narratives, a character whose MO is based on an internal "two-way pull," and misanthropic rage. Don't miss the Nothing Man!

Despite a contrived "happy" ending forced on by the original publisher (see Savage Art, Bio of Jim Thompson), Nothing Man remains a harrowing look into the dementia of lost manhood. It also serves to indict the politics behind journalism and police corruption. Each of its 24 "mini"- chapters ends on a jolting surprise or revelation, making it a fast page-turner. I first read Thompson 8 years ago, and he's remained one of my top three or four favorites ever since -- along with Chuck Palahnuik, Herbert Selby Jr., and Seth Morgan. If you like your fiction hard-edged, suspensefully-plotted and with touches of dark hilarity -- go for the Nothing Man and the rest of the Thompson canon.

Although "The Killer Inside me" and "Pop. 1280" are better known, this novel is one of Thompson's best as well. While most of his books have slack passages, this one is tight all the way through, and the character, a living metaphor, emobodies the idea of the book in every word and deed. The extreme toughness of this book is more subdued than other Thompson books, but that makes the effect of the novel that much more powerful. The richest of his novels.