Pop. 1280

Rating:
Summary: An underappreciated classic
Review: While some of Jim Thompson's other work (The Grifters, The Killer Inside Me) hews more closely to the classic themes of noir fiction, Pop. 1280 is the most definitive example of his oeuvre. Thompson's bizarre mix of crude humor, biting wit and horrifying crime is perfectly balanced in this book. One of the few texts I've ever seen that manages to distill America in all it's fiendish glory into something that can be assimilated in a few hours. Almost Blakean in it's nightmarish vision of life, death and spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: Wild Ride of a book
Review: You will never read another book like this one, because there aren't any. This defies the hard boiled genre Thompson is known for. It is hard to describe the story without revealing too much of the plot. It is about an outwardly stupid, cowardly, spineless southern sherrif in the 1920's. By the end everything you thought was happening has been turned upside down. A must read.