Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1DF4RLRRKMEL5/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B004RD85AI
This book is laugh-out-loud funny, and, then, without pausing, it turns on a dime and becomes the darkest of noir.
The protagonist is Nick Corey, High Sheriff of Potts County. Nick likes his job as sheriff because he believes that he can live up to the very low expectations of the good citizens of Potts County, who would become very annoyed if he was to enforce the liquor laws and close down the whorehouse. So long, as he does virtually nothing, he figures that he has the softest gig there ever could be.
Nick presents himself to the town as a nice, back-slapping, redneck good-old-boy because anything more would upset the expectations of his neighbors. He is such a nice, simple, decent guy that no one can imagine that he is taking money from the pimps at the whorehouse or is having an affair with a married woman in the town despite him being a married man.
However, try as he might, the circles get tighter and tighter and even a nice fellow like Nick, who wants nothing more than to be left in peace, has to take some pretty desperate steps to keep everything in balance. It is here that Nick shows himself to be something more than the simple, nice, dim sheriff. Acting more by instinct than by premeditation - although premeditation must be there despite Nick's protestations to the contrary - Nick spins plots and juggles balls and virtually always comes out on top. One of the classics is his off-the-cuff strategy for beating an unbeatable challenger for the sheriff's office by firmly stating that he doesn't believe "all them stories," knowing that with that invitation, stories would be invented before lunch.
Nick reminded me of the Gary Cole character in the short-lived, but excellent television series "American Gothic." Cole's character was Sheriff Lucas Buck. Buck had all the charm and long-range plotting we see in Nick Corey, although Buck is pretty clearly Satan, and Nick Corey thinks he's Jesus Christ. (And the psychiatric deterioration of Nick at the end is fascinating.) I wonder if Lucas Buck was based on Nick Corey or on Lucas Ford from "The Killer Inside."
Another character Nick Corey reminded me of was Mark Twain's Puddnhead Wilson. Wilson was the smartest guy in his small town, but he didn't keep his intelligence undercover and, naturally, the bigots and dimbulbs around him decide that he's the "pudding head."
I was puzzled by the time setting of this story. Cars seem to be at the "horseless carriage" stage. People use horse-drawn wagons. There are phones, though, and there is a reference to the Bolsheviks possibly overturning the Czar. So, it sounds like 1918.
Another thing that modern readers might find alarming - given the narrow-mindedness of contemporary attitudes - is the blatant racism of the characters. Racially derogatory expressions and attitudes are sprinkled throughout the book. Yet, in a way, I think that Nick thinks that these attitudes are barbaric. Certainly, author Jim Thompson - a leftist himself - must have had a dim view of racism. Some of Nick's funniest ironic comments lampoon the racism of his neighbors.
This is a good book. It is also a very good listen.
Check it out.
This book is laugh-out-loud funny, and, then, without pausing, it turns on a dime and becomes the darkest of noir.
The protagonist is Nick Corey, High Sheriff of Potts County. Nick likes his job as sheriff because he believes that he can live up to the very low expectations of the good citizens of Potts County, who would become very annoyed if he was to enforce the liquor laws and close down the whorehouse. So long, as he does virtually nothing, he figures that he has the softest gig there ever could be.
Nick presents himself to the town as a nice, back-slapping, redneck good-old-boy because anything more would upset the expectations of his neighbors. He is such a nice, simple, decent guy that no one can imagine that he is taking money from the pimps at the whorehouse or is having an affair with a married woman in the town despite him being a married man.
However, try as he might, the circles get tighter and tighter and even a nice fellow like Nick, who wants nothing more than to be left in peace, has to take some pretty desperate steps to keep everything in balance. It is here that Nick shows himself to be something more than the simple, nice, dim sheriff. Acting more by instinct than by premeditation - although premeditation must be there despite Nick's protestations to the contrary - Nick spins plots and juggles balls and virtually always comes out on top. One of the classics is his off-the-cuff strategy for beating an unbeatable challenger for the sheriff's office by firmly stating that he doesn't believe "all them stories," knowing that with that invitation, stories would be invented before lunch.
Nick reminded me of the Gary Cole character in the short-lived, but excellent television series "American Gothic." Cole's character was Sheriff Lucas Buck. Buck had all the charm and long-range plotting we see in Nick Corey, although Buck is pretty clearly Satan, and Nick Corey thinks he's Jesus Christ. (And the psychiatric deterioration of Nick at the end is fascinating.) I wonder if Lucas Buck was based on Nick Corey or on Lucas Ford from "The Killer Inside."
Another character Nick Corey reminded me of was Mark Twain's Puddnhead Wilson. Wilson was the smartest guy in his small town, but he didn't keep his intelligence undercover and, naturally, the bigots and dimbulbs around him decide that he's the "pudding head."
I was puzzled by the time setting of this story. Cars seem to be at the "horseless carriage" stage. People use horse-drawn wagons. There are phones, though, and there is a reference to the Bolsheviks possibly overturning the Czar. So, it sounds like 1918.
Another thing that modern readers might find alarming - given the narrow-mindedness of contemporary attitudes - is the blatant racism of the characters. Racially derogatory expressions and attitudes are sprinkled throughout the book. Yet, in a way, I think that Nick thinks that these attitudes are barbaric. Certainly, author Jim Thompson - a leftist himself - must have had a dim view of racism. Some of Nick's funniest ironic comments lampoon the racism of his neighbors.
This is a good book. It is also a very good listen.
Check it out.
This was great. Maybe one of my favorite books now. The main character is definitely one of the best I've come across, a classic unreliable narrator totally manipulating everyone else in the story and the reader as well. A darkly comic noir masterpiece.
Not what I was expecting at all. I thought I would be reading noir...and what I really got was hard satire. It's hard to put this in a clear category- it's not noir, and it's not southern gothic. It's not really a detectives story, nor a mystery or adventure novel. It's not really a western either. It's...satire. But not in the way I'm used to either. It's the kind of satire that says things like (paraphrasing) "but I'm just exhausted, I didn't sleep last night at all, I only got 14 hours of sleep" or "I've hardly had any breakfast, just 8 pancakes, a bowl of porridge, 3 bananas, 6 eggs, 4 pieces of toast, and 12 sausages- a man might starve if he doesn't eat something soon". Women cuss far more than the men do, and our main character plays stupid because he figures no one actually wants a smart man around. It's a novel of something for sure. I think I enjoyed it? But it was also full of a lot of meandering, and since there wasn't a lot of clear plot and not a clear message the book was trying to get across, I kind of just drifted along with Nick Corey on this one. There are definitely some choice phrases in the book, and it had little bits of gold scattered throughout. Kind of an odd little book, which I think I'd only recommend to a select few. It might be a book which bears greater enjoyment on a second re-read too.
“a heck of a lot of things are bound to go wrong in a world as big as this one.
And if there's an answer to why it's that way - and there ain't always - why, it's probably not just one answer by itself, but thousands of answers.”
― Jim Thompson, Pop. 1280
Small towns can be a drag. Especially when you are the High Sheriff. Especially when you are also a psychopath who is just a tad smarter than you let on. You've got these liberal and soft feelings toward minorities and social ills. You want to find a nice woman and settle down, but with all these women you are sleeping with and all these clowns in town things just can't get right (with either you or the Lord) until a couple of these buggers are dead. I mean don't feel bad about it. Dead isn't that much better than life in a town in Texas (or was it Oklahoma?) with a population hovering around 1280 and some of those 1280 aren't rich or white. People in town might want you to do stuff. No, not really. They keep electing you because that is exactly what they don't want you to do -- stuff. And if they knew the stuff you did, the certainly wouldn't want you to keep on doing it.
Thompson seems to grab the humanity by the nuts and just squeezes the truth out of it. Like Jim had a whole town on the rack and after a bit of pulling the town's ugliness just seems to spill out. Don't think your big towns are any better and don't think your suburban sprawl doesn't contain the rats, the hypocrites, the dark motives and strange bedfellows that seem to exist in the front room of Jim Thompson's brain. Your town is the same, just more so. And if so, think of how many 'high sheriff's' your town has protecting you.
And, if you have any lingering questions, just go check out The Making of a Murderer on Netflix.
And if there's an answer to why it's that way - and there ain't always - why, it's probably not just one answer by itself, but thousands of answers.”
― Jim Thompson, Pop. 1280
Small towns can be a drag. Especially when you are the High Sheriff. Especially when you are also a psychopath who is just a tad smarter than you let on. You've got these liberal and soft feelings toward minorities and social ills. You want to find a nice woman and settle down, but with all these women you are sleeping with and all these clowns in town things just can't get right (with either you or the Lord) until a couple of these buggers are dead. I mean don't feel bad about it. Dead isn't that much better than life in a town in Texas (or was it Oklahoma?) with a population hovering around 1280 and some of those 1280 aren't rich or white. People in town might want you to do stuff. No, not really. They keep electing you because that is exactly what they don't want you to do -- stuff. And if they knew the stuff you did, the certainly wouldn't want you to keep on doing it.
Thompson seems to grab the humanity by the nuts and just squeezes the truth out of it. Like Jim had a whole town on the rack and after a bit of pulling the town's ugliness just seems to spill out. Don't think your big towns are any better and don't think your suburban sprawl doesn't contain the rats, the hypocrites, the dark motives and strange bedfellows that seem to exist in the front room of Jim Thompson's brain. Your town is the same, just more so. And if so, think of how many 'high sheriff's' your town has protecting you.
And, if you have any lingering questions, just go check out The Making of a Murderer on Netflix.
Nick Corey is sheriff of a small town in the Deep South, and is determined to retain the cushty life that his position has afforded him for many years. To the townsfolk, his wife and friends, he is simple-minded and reasonably incompetent, yet good-natured, but Nick is hiding depths that are forced up to the surface when his livelihood comes under threat. He is, in fact, far more shrewd and intelligent than any of them could imagine, and his ability to manipulate situations and play the role he has spent a long time cultivating is about to be tested as it never has been before.
Funny, clever and engaging, this was a solid four star read right up until the last couple of chapters, but unfortunately (and without giving away any spoilers), the ending fell flat and felt as though it did not quite marry up with what we had learned of Nick throughout the rest of the book. It was still a highly enjoyable story and I look forward to picking up more from the author in future.
Funny, clever and engaging, this was a solid four star read right up until the last couple of chapters, but unfortunately (and without giving away any spoilers), the ending fell flat and felt as though it did not quite marry up with what we had learned of Nick throughout the rest of the book. It was still a highly enjoyable story and I look forward to picking up more from the author in future.
I just re-read this this week. What a book! I think this might be Thompson's best. I forgot how funny it is in places, especially the first few chapters and the chapter near the end with Rose's tirade about Lennie, which has to be one of the raunchiest things ever printed. How did Thompson get away with that in 1964?
This book also happens to be one of the most scathing indictments of Southern small-town life ever written. It's a little over the top in places, which comes off as bawdy, farcical and harrowing all at the same time.
The story is quite similar to The Killer Inside Me, with it's first-person narration by a deranged homocidal small-town sherrif. This book is shorter than The Killer Inside Me, and funnier and darker, due to its criticism of the racism, injustice, hypocrisy and meanness of the society in which it takes place.
This book also happens to be one of the most scathing indictments of Southern small-town life ever written. It's a little over the top in places, which comes off as bawdy, farcical and harrowing all at the same time.
The story is quite similar to The Killer Inside Me, with it's first-person narration by a deranged homocidal small-town sherrif. This book is shorter than The Killer Inside Me, and funnier and darker, due to its criticism of the racism, injustice, hypocrisy and meanness of the society in which it takes place.
Wow. I had no idea that I would ever like a book like this - but I do! Think Andy Griffin goes dark. Hugely surprising and entertaining. Recommended.
dark
funny
fast-paced
High Sheriff Nick Corey acts like a simpleton, he doesn’t arrest anyone, he doesn’t stir the pot, he acts and behaves the exact way everyone wants him to act; well at least the way he thinks he should act. But this kind and gentle nature is just a cover from his sinister attitude. But has this side of Nick always been there, or was this just a result of always acting the way he thinks he should?
The way Nick Corey acts, the lies and manipulating as scary; it’s like Jim Thompson is holding a mirror up to the reader and says ‘See, this is how you act’ (well maybe it was just for me). But with all the raging I was doing at Nick Corey, I almost missed just how brilliant this book really is.
Jim Thompson is very experimental with his writing, and while he never really got the recognition he deserved when he was a live, his books are dark, gritty and always ringing an element of truth in it. No one has ever done characters quiet like Jim Thompson; characters that always hiding their true nature and acting the way people want them to act, while hiding the darkness. Fans of pulp novels will enjoy this book, but people looking for a light, easy read then this book will not do.
The way Nick Corey acts, the lies and manipulating as scary; it’s like Jim Thompson is holding a mirror up to the reader and says ‘See, this is how you act’ (well maybe it was just for me). But with all the raging I was doing at Nick Corey, I almost missed just how brilliant this book really is.
Jim Thompson is very experimental with his writing, and while he never really got the recognition he deserved when he was a live, his books are dark, gritty and always ringing an element of truth in it. No one has ever done characters quiet like Jim Thompson; characters that always hiding their true nature and acting the way people want them to act, while hiding the darkness. Fans of pulp novels will enjoy this book, but people looking for a light, easy read then this book will not do.