Reviews

Savage Night by Jim Thompson

madtraveler's review against another edition

3.0

The narrator, a nervous hitman hired for a job by The Man rents a room from the alcoholic paranoid target and settles in to wait for the best time to kill him. The narrator is a bit of a headcase and suffering from TB and by the end he is apparently losing his marbles. He's a fascinating character with flashes of brutality and compassion and you are never sure how much he can be trusted in his story. The ending seems sudden and perplexing, though others found it brilliant. It's good noir, well paced and short with enough twists to keep it moving and that ending that makes you re-read it just to be sure.

nharkins's review against another edition

3.0

typical pulp: weak premise, but the character's plotting/dialogue draws you in.
however this one had an amazing bit of jim thompson thrown in the middle:
the main character reminisces about once hitchhiking, and getting picked
up by an eccentric author heading back upstate after delivering his latest
novel to his publisher in new york, but the author claims to be "a farmer
growing tits and asses, because they're the cash crops" --he "used to grow
faces and expressions and other stuff", but there's just no market for it now.
reminded me somewhat of the talking asshole monologue from Burrough's
Naked Lunch: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102511/quotes?qt0543805

dannewton's review against another edition

3.0

Good, but no Pop. 1280. Does he have a book better than that one?