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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
I like absurdity, and Pop. 1280 is as absurd as they come...a twisted, sadistic sheriff runs his town is a slow, peaceful, nonchalant fashion so no one connects to his evil selfish ways...actually he's quite brilliant, gets what he wants (especially women), when he wants...on top of the absurdity it's very tongue-in-cheek, but...that doesn't allow the racist theme through-out the novel...I enjoyed the read, it's true noir and a classic of the genre...but it's not for everyone, soooooo, I'm not sure I can recommend it, either you'll love it (and 'get-it')...or not.
Don't be fooled!
Nick Corey might pass himself off as a good-natured hick sheriff intent on doing right but looking ever so slightly deeper we'll detect author Jim Thompson has given us a searing portrait of a man who is the embodiment of cruelty, ruthlessness and sheer evil.
According to Stephen Marche, Pop. 1280 offers up “a preposterously upsetting, ridiculously hilarious layer cake of nastiness, a romp through a world of nearly infinite deceit.”
And there's cool cat Mark Monday characterizing the novel as “bleak and misanthropic and evilly hilarious.”
Whoa, bubba, with this noir classic, Jim Thompson deserves to be celebrated as America's “dimestore Dostoevsky.”
For a Texas taste or Oklahoma oomph of what Nick Corey and the other folks in this top dog Thompson tale are all about, I'll mosey on over to Potts County, population 1280, and share the following Pop. movie trailer:
DARTH VADER TRICKSTER
As soon as Nick Corey opens his mouth, everyone judges Nick a dope. A stranger on a train wearing classy black-and-white checker suit and white derby tells Nick he can't use the washroom since it's being used by “a naked woman on a spotted pony” and a town pimp calls Nick a “two-bit clown.” Oh, people, if you only knew the high sheriff of Potts County plays dumb to lure you into his deadly trap. After all, Nick Corey has plans, big plans.
LACK OF SELF-AWARENESS
Nick tells us he's so worried he can barely eat, all the while chomping down a breakfast of “half a dozen pork chops and a few fried eggs.” Later on, after he gets off the train, Nick's worries continue, so worried he still can't eat but manages to chow down on a plate of corn bread and fried catfish. Goodness, Nick has eaten enough food for six men. Jim Thompson lets us know Nick isn't an out-and-out liar so much as a man who has colossal appetites and needs, so needy, he has to hide himself from himself.
BRUTAL BACKSTORY
Jim Thompson clues us in on his character's backstory but his usual practice is to hold off until the end of the novel (The Killer Inside Me, The Kill-Off, Savage Night). With Pop. 1280, things are different; Jim has Nick reflect on his childhood a few chapters in, telling us he's haunted by being a kid “getting beat half to death every time he (his father) could grab me.” Nick's father also blamed Nick for killing mom who died while giving birth to Nick. Now, there's an explosive combination: Nick's a victim of extreme physical and emotional abuse along with living with a heavy burden of guilt.
DESPICABLE RACISM
Warning: Jim Thompson doesn't hold back regarding how these white countryfolk view their Black brethren: subhuman, barely more than farm animals. And the language they use, even out in public, even speaking to Blacks directly. A novel not for the easily offended.
PSYCHOPATH
Up in their apartment, Nick's wife Myra launches into another one of her tirades against good-for-nothing Nick but she stops short suddenly when she sees something in Nick's eyes. Myra is stunned and immediately turns all sweet and nice. What does Myra see? Does she detect, perhaps for the first time, she's in the presence of a psychopath? Keep a lookout for this scene - so much goes unstated. Also, one of the more comical bits in Pop.: Nick relaying the way Myra, bless her egotistical heart, trapped Nick into marrying her.
RETELLING REVELATION
"The reason I went to see Ken Lacey, for example, wasn't the one I let on that it was. I'd done it because I had a plan for him - and you've seen what that plan was." Here Nick recycles back to let us know he purposely misled us about the reason for his visit to see Ken Lacey. Thus we're wise as readers not to be too quick in assuming Nick will always tell us the truth, to keep a constant lookout on how Nick will not only double-cross the women and men he encounters (and entraps) in Potts County but Nick could also be double-crossing us as readers.
WHAT NOT TO SAY TO A PSYCHOPATH
At one point beautiful sweetheart Amy tells Nick she knows very well he committed murder and he arranged things to look like Ken Lacey did the killing. Nick responds, "What if I just can't help myself, Amy? What if it's him or me?" To which Amy replies, "Then, I'd be very sorry, Nick. It would have to be you." Oh, lady, to tell a psychopath that if you were given the choice between sentencing him or his victim to the electric chair, you would choose to fry him - not a sensible choice if you yourself want to stay alive. Such a telling scene, revealing our tendency to underestimate people, their capacity for both good and evil.
THE POTTS COUNTY SAGE SPEAKS
Toward the end of Pop., Nick shares his philosophy of life prompted by an overwhelming sense of emptiness. "And then suddenly it wasn't here, it was everywhere, every place like this one. And suddenly the emptiness was filled with sound and sight, with all the sad terrible things that the emptiness has brought the people to." What Nick cities as specific instances of what the emptiness has brought people to is heart-wrenching. But then the shock: Nick's answer to cosmic emptiness. And even more shocking: Nick's statement in the novel's concluding sentence.
What am I alluding to here? For each reader to discover.
American novelist Jim Thompson, 1906-1977
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think up until the last twenty pages or so, this was set to be one of my all time favorite books.
But then, by the end, I just couldn’t buy the way corrupt Sheriff Nick Corey was able to predict the other characters’ behavior. Behavior that he egged on for his own benefit as part of some kind of improvised scheme.
Maybe I should be reading more into Nick’s words near the end of the book, and accept that he’s an agent of God sent to punish a bunch of poor schmoes for…being a bunch a poor schmoes, I guess? Sort of an agent of cosmic injustice? Maybe I should just accept the book as an allegory for the meaninglessness of life? I dunno.
This book is funny, unpredictable, and entertaining, but in the end it offends my sense of storytelling logic. It doesn’t play fair with the reader. It seems as though Thompson wrote himself into a corner and then tried to play the story off as having some existential meaning. As if it’s something more than a lurid ten cent drugstore paperback. Believe me, I’m not above a lurid ten cents drugstore paperback, but c’mon!
The book just doesn’t stick the landing.
But then, by the end, I just couldn’t buy the way corrupt Sheriff Nick Corey was able to predict the other characters’ behavior. Behavior that he egged on for his own benefit as part of some kind of improvised scheme.
Maybe I should be reading more into Nick’s words near the end of the book, and accept that he’s an agent of God sent to punish a bunch of poor schmoes for…being a bunch a poor schmoes, I guess? Sort of an agent of cosmic injustice? Maybe I should just accept the book as an allegory for the meaninglessness of life? I dunno.
This book is funny, unpredictable, and entertaining, but in the end it offends my sense of storytelling logic. It doesn’t play fair with the reader. It seems as though Thompson wrote himself into a corner and then tried to play the story off as having some existential meaning. As if it’s something more than a lurid ten cent drugstore paperback. Believe me, I’m not above a lurid ten cents drugstore paperback, but c’mon!
The book just doesn’t stick the landing.
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence
Minor: Sexual assault
Not sure about this one. Much prefer the grifters or the killer inside me. That Nick seems so attractive to the womenfolk of the town is a little unbelievable to me. Expected more and was disappointed.
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was one of the most twisted books I have read in a long time! Excellent!!!
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
tense