South of Heaven (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

Rating:
Summary: Minor Thompson
Review: The best part about this novel is its narration of the laying of an oil pipeline, including: the job descriptions, typical personnel, and rugged Texas countryside circa the 1920s. I have read around 18 Thompson novels, and among the best are "Pop. 1280", "The Nothing Man", and "The Killer Inside Me". He probably wrote about 6 to 8 novels that are signature pieces: uniquely Thompson in plot and characterization. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM. It is a good enough story, but if you really want to know what Thompson was about, save this one for later.

Rating:
Summary: Minor Thompson
Review: The best part about this novel is its narration of the laying of an oil pipeline, including: the job descriptions, typical personnel, and rugged Texas countryside circa the 1920s. I have read around 18 Thompson novels, and among the best are "Pop. 1280", "The Nothing Man", and "The Killer Inside Me". He probably wrote about 6 to 8 novels that are signature pieces: uniquely Thompson in plot and characterization. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM. It is a good enough story, but if you really want to know what Thompson was about, save this one for later.

Rating:
Summary: As touching as Jim Thompson gets
Review: This book really surprised me. There's something of a sense of humanity and impotence that Thompson touches on here that is absent from his other work. Don't get me wrong- the novel is devoid of sentimentality. The setting is dated but that really appealled to me. It functions as a work of history to those of us born in the mid-late seventies. It is also a hard-boiled love-story and crime story taking place at a work camp comprised of hoboes laying a gas pipeline in west Texas, just "south of heavan." As a recent college grad I could really identify with the human protagonist, a kid who has a gift, a set of skills, who is being pushed around by others and on the inside. He has a decision to make. And that decision isn't as obvious as everyone is telling him it is. What I love about Jim Thompson is that nothing is black and white. Nothing is one or two diminsional. There are good guys and bad guys. Most of the time its the supposed bad guy, or a terrific sociopath that the reader is forced to identify with. And if a guy is really bad through and through, Thompson gives you a damn good reason why. This isn't my favorite Jim Thompson book. I prefer the classics like After Dark my Sweet, the Getaway, The Killer Inside Me, etc. etc. But South of Heavan definitely belongs in the top ten, maybe even top five in the pantheon.

Rating:
Summary: As touching as Jim Thompson gets
Review: This book really surprised me. There's something of a sense of humanity and impotence that Thompson touches on here that is absent from his other work. Don't get me wrong- the novel is devoid of sentimentality. The setting is dated but that really appealled to me. It functions as a work of history to those of us born in the mid-late seventies. It is also a hard-boiled love-story and crime story taking place at a work camp comprised of hoboes laying a gas pipeline in west Texas, just "south of heavan." As a recent college grad I could really identify with the human protagonist, a kid who has a gift, a set of skills, who is being pushed around by others and on the inside. He has a decision to make. And that decision isn't as obvious as everyone is telling him it is. What I love about Jim Thompson is that nothing is black and white. Nothing is one or two diminsional. There are good guys and bad guys. Most of the time its the supposed bad guy, or a terrific sociopath that the reader is forced to identify with. And if a guy is really bad through and through, Thompson gives you a damn good reason why. This isn't my favorite Jim Thompson book. I prefer the classics like After Dark my Sweet, the Getaway, The Killer Inside Me, etc. etc. But South of Heavan definitely belongs in the top ten, maybe even top five in the pantheon.

Rating:
Summary: Raymond Chandler meets The Grapes of Wrath
Review: This was my second Thompson book, after 'The Killer Inside Me' ... & after starting with that, which I keep hearing is one of his best, I was afraid I'd be let down ... afraid because I enjoyed 'The Killer ...' tremendously. Happily, my fear was unfounded ... & I was delighted how different 'South of Heaven' is from 'The Killer ...' & how I got not only a fun piece of crime fiction but also something that evoked some of the same feelings as 'The Grapes of Wrath,' if written entirely differently. Thompson does an excellent job portraying the hard lives of the pipeliners without boring the reader. Tommy Burwell is a great character, too. ... I hope Thompson is in the midst of being rediscovered (judging by how many of his books are in print, maybe so) & I know I'm gonna enjoy him as much as Graham Greene (who's my all-time favorite writer), if for entirely different reasons. Greene, who was a wonderful writer, dismissed his own books as mere "entertainments." The same could easily be (wrong-headedly) said of the two Thompson books I've read thus far ... but oh man are they ever entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Raymond Chandler meets The Grapes of Wrath
Review: This was my second Thompson book, after 'The Killer Inside Me' ... & after starting with that, which I keep hearing is one of his best, I was afraid I'd be let down ... afraid because I enjoyed 'The Killer ...' tremendously. Happily, my fear was unfounded ... & I was delighted how different 'South of Heaven' is from 'The Killer ...' & how I got not only a fun piece of crime fiction but also something that evoked some of the same feelings as 'The Grapes of Wrath,' if written entirely differently. Thompson does an excellent job portraying the hard lives of the pipeliners without boring the reader. Tommy Burwell is a great character, too. ... I hope Thompson is in the midst of being rediscovered (judging by how many of his books are in print, maybe so) & I know I'm gonna enjoy him as much as Graham Greene (who's my all-time favorite writer), if for entirely different reasons. Greene, who was a wonderful writer, dismissed his own books as mere "entertainments." The same could easily be (wrong-headedly) said of the two Thompson books I've read thus far ... but oh man are they ever entertaining.