I've been told for years if I like Charles Willeford, I would like Jim Thompson. Well, I liked this book a lot, but there is not an ounce of humor in it unlike the Hoke Mosley books. The writing is terrific and what a trio inhabits these pages. It begins with Roy Dillon getting clubbed in the stomach. He is a grifter, a man of mostly small cons. His mother and girlfriend form the trio and it's hard to say whose the most noirish but I am betting on Lilly, his mother. This has so much atmosphere, and good settings and great dialog, you can hardly turn the pages fast enough. La Jolla never seemed so dark to me. Like a play almost, each of these characters has their own little story and the other back away and let them tell it.
4 comments:
Movie adaptations are almost always a disappointment; I'll include "Lord of the Rings" in that category. However the 1990s film of "The Grifters" is worth watching and not just because Donald Westlake wrote the screenplay.
When I read a book I form a mental picture of the characters. It's rare when an actor's portrayal of a character replaces my previous mental image. First Rathbone then Brett did so as Sherlock Holmes. Huston, Cusack, and Benning did the same with their performances of the mother, son, and girlfriend in the film version of "The Grifters".
Thanks. It's less widely available than I assumed but I guess I can rent it from Apple. I did see it at the time and was impressed.
Jim Thompson was a brilliant writer who is vastly underrated.
Not by informed cf readers, George...and this film helped him acquire a coterie latter-day audience.
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