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kilgoretroutsky's review against another edition
2.0
I really liked The Grifters, so I was surprised this one never grabbed me. Not sure how Jim Thompson managed it, but I never felt any suspense whatsoever.
drewdietsch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Thompson knows how to keep a story tight and propulsive without sacrificing necessary depth to the entire endeavor. A grimy yarn with a surreal ending both wicked and divine.
tittypete's review against another edition
5.0
Doc McCoy get’s out of prison early because his hot librarian wife dangles her labes in front of the nose of the big boss man. But in exchange ol’ Doc has to pull off a heist. Which he does and it’s pretty smooth. One of his partners, Rudy, is a shit and kills the other partner, Jackson, but it seems like that’s OK. But it is not OK when Rudy tries to kill Doc. Doc shoots his ass and leaves him for dead which it turns out he is not. When Doc and his hot wife visit the big boss man to give him is cut, the guy alludes to the fact that maybe he might’ve slipped ol’ Doc’s wife the musky meat cylinder AND was planning on pulling a double cross on doc by killing him and making off with the money and the guy that stretched ‘er out! (This was something I guess I didn’t pick up on but gleaned from post-read synopses.) But she ends up shooting the big boss man and the high-tail it with all the cash. They take a roundabout way of getting to the border. On the way they have to kill some people for their cars and kill a guy on a train who tries to pull the ol’ switcharoo on wifey and steal the money bag. Meanwhile Rudy has his wounds tended to be a veterinarian and his sex-wife. Rudy ends up pluggin’ the wife in front of the vet and the vet copes with being a cuck by hanging himself. Doc and wife make it to a safe house tourist court in California where Rudy and vet-sex-wife try to ambush them but Doc kills them both. Now the hero couple is REALLY on the lam and they get help by a criminal matriarch named Ma. At this point the book gets real symbolize-y. Doc and wife hide in some underwater caves. Then hide in a hollowed out pile of animal shit. Then take a boat ride where they kill some Coast Guards before finally making it to the independent kingdom of El Rey in Mexico. El Rey’s place seems nice but is actually hell-like. It costs a lot. Everybody is turning on eachother and in the end you have to become a cannibal streetsweeper. Doc and wife both end up scheming to have one another killed. There’s your metaphor. Death in the underwater caves. Decomposition in the shit pile. Crossing the river styx in the boat trip. And the final stop being hell because you're a bad person who robs and kills and in the end you’re fucked.
This book was the bee’s tits. Much gnarlier than the Peckinpah movie. Definitely going to read more Jim Thompson.
This book was the bee’s tits. Much gnarlier than the Peckinpah movie. Definitely going to read more Jim Thompson.
dantastic's review against another edition
3.0
Doc McCoy, Rudy "Piehead" Torrento, and an accomplice rob the Beacon City Bank and immediately begin double crossing each other. Can Doc McCoy and his wife make it to Mexico before Torrento takes them down or the police catch them?
The Getaway it the tale of a bank heist and its aftermath, told in Jim Thompson's bleak style. Actually, it's really light compared to the other four Thompson's I've read up to this point, more akin to Richard Stark's Parker series than The Killer Inside me. Doc McCoy is a planner and a smooth operator, always ready for a hitch. His wife, Carol, is more like him than either of them care to admit.
The twists kept coming. The flight into Mexico was pretty harrowing. How many crime novels have you read that feature the protagonists hiding in holes in the ground or under a big pile of manure?
"So why only a 3?" you ask. Well, while I respect The Getaway as one of the early heist stories and I'm already a Thompson fan, I just didn't enjoy it that much. The writing was up to par but after reading so many of Richard Stark's Parker books and The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynski, it just wasn't that great. It's still a good read but it's definitely a second tier Thompson book, more akin to Savage Night or After Dark, My Sweet, than to The Killer Inside Me or Pop. 1280.
The Getaway it the tale of a bank heist and its aftermath, told in Jim Thompson's bleak style. Actually, it's really light compared to the other four Thompson's I've read up to this point, more akin to Richard Stark's Parker series than The Killer Inside me. Doc McCoy is a planner and a smooth operator, always ready for a hitch. His wife, Carol, is more like him than either of them care to admit.
The twists kept coming.
Spoiler
I was pretty surprised when Torrento turned up alive and again when the thief stole the bag containing the money at the train station."So why only a 3?" you ask. Well, while I respect The Getaway as one of the early heist stories and I'm already a Thompson fan, I just didn't enjoy it that much. The writing was up to par but after reading so many of Richard Stark's Parker books and The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynski, it just wasn't that great. It's still a good read but it's definitely a second tier Thompson book, more akin to Savage Night or After Dark, My Sweet, than to The Killer Inside Me or Pop. 1280.
rocketiza's review against another edition
3.0
This felt just over written to me for a Thompson. The 'character' of the characters was reiterated so much it detracted from the tension of the story.
neilsarver's review
3.0
I'm probably rating grumpier than I should. Another day, I'd easily give 3 1/2 stars, and I'd round up in a more generous mood without much cajoling. There's certainly a lot to recommend this.
I've not been too enthusiastic to read this, just because being the basis for the worst good movie Sam Peckinpah has been less encouraging than it ought to be. And, if there's a justification for rounding up stars it would be that most of the book is more compelling than the movie overall.
The thing I'm feeling grumpy about is the last chapter, which is what readers always tout as the reason one should take this over the movie. And, for me, this is very similar to my issues with the last chapter of [b:A Clockwork Orange|41817486|A Clockwork Orange|Anthony Burgess|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549260060l/41817486._SX50_.jpg|23596]. In both cases, I can see how the endings are important, are arguably what both authors had in mind as the point of writing their respective novels, but both feel underdeveloped to me.
In this one, it could almost be its own novel, but it certainly needed to be twice as long to cover both the denouement of the novel and the vivid take of El Ray's kingdom, both of which are interesting but only tasted in this chapter, to my view. I'm sure the argument is that it's spare and covers only what needs telling, which is the beauty of the way the novel up to that point is told. I felt like the previous chapters gave a couple of extra dots to fill the line between and feel like the last should have added the same ratio.
I've not been too enthusiastic to read this, just because being the basis for the worst good movie Sam Peckinpah has been less encouraging than it ought to be. And, if there's a justification for rounding up stars it would be that most of the book is more compelling than the movie overall.
The thing I'm feeling grumpy about is the last chapter, which is what readers always tout as the reason one should take this over the movie. And, for me, this is very similar to my issues with the last chapter of [b:A Clockwork Orange|41817486|A Clockwork Orange|Anthony Burgess|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549260060l/41817486._SX50_.jpg|23596]. In both cases, I can see how the endings are important, are arguably what both authors had in mind as the point of writing their respective novels, but both feel underdeveloped to me.
In this one, it could almost be its own novel, but it certainly needed to be twice as long to cover both the denouement of the novel and the vivid take of El Ray's kingdom, both of which are interesting but only tasted in this chapter, to my view. I'm sure the argument is that it's spare and covers only what needs telling, which is the beauty of the way the novel up to that point is told. I felt like the previous chapters gave a couple of extra dots to fill the line between and feel like the last should have added the same ratio.
n_atatouille's review against another edition
1.0
Oh my god. This was SO bad.
This is so poorly written, it’s unbearable. The characters are annoying as hell, the plot sucks and it was so unbelievable.
It didn’t flow well and felt generally like the author had ‘half arsed’ this story.
This is the second of my two ‘Did not finish’ books of 2022.
I stopped reading when the author made his characters use racial slurs. It wasn’t pertinent to the story at all and it’s incredibly cringeworthy.
This is so poorly written, it’s unbearable. The characters are annoying as hell, the plot sucks and it was so unbelievable.
It didn’t flow well and felt generally like the author had ‘half arsed’ this story.
This is the second of my two ‘Did not finish’ books of 2022.
I stopped reading when the author made his characters use racial slurs. It wasn’t pertinent to the story at all and it’s incredibly cringeworthy.
johnnyforeign's review against another edition
4.0
Thompson's novels are compulsively readable. The prose is a bit clunky at times, but the narrative drive, the unseemly (though interesting) characters, and the gritty realism easily sustain one's interest. I didn't quite buy the last chapter, though. To my thinking, it verged on the surrealistic and thereby undermined the verisimilitude established in the preceding chapters. Still, all in all, a great read if you like this sort of thing.
katieaggg's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
raoulgonzo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5