Talk about those great writers and precursors of the current inexhaustible black genre as they were Dashiell hammett, James M Cain o Raymond Chandler and obviate Jim Thompson, it is not a receipt. At least these four occupied the most glorious pages of this genre until the late 50s and 60s.
So today I bring here the fourth (and at a similar level) great writer of the "gray" detective genre, the one who began to lay the foundations of the blackest novel in its current more uninhibited aspects that point towards violence and gore as a horizon from evil transferred to fiction.
Jim Thompson's case is that of a purebred writer, interested since his first stories by the events and the underworld. Since his childhood, little Jim has experienced various economic ups and downs from a father who is equally fond of politicking and easy money, even serving as Sheriff.
So Jim was not an academically oriented kid. However, his fondness for reading and his writing skills soon manifested helped him to find first jobs in the press at the same time that he published some stories and police.
During his youth and into his early forties, Jim Thompson combined various jobs of all kinds while taking a look at alcoholism and certain performances on the alcohol black market that ended up causing him more than one problem.
With his wife and three children, and well into the 40s, Jim goes to New York where he finally writes his first novel, beyond so many previous stories with which he was earning some relief income.
His greatest dedication to novelism did not quite put aside his problems with alcohol and some other conflictive episodes also politically and due to the family tragedy with the suicide of his father.
With this vital baggage, it can be understood that the novels that have come since then stand out for that halo of a fatalistic crime novel, of underworlds dotted with defeat, survival, hatred and corruption. An authentic suburban portrait extended to any social sphere, with the typical ties that link power with the underworld, where life is only a matter of money and money is only a matter of excessive ambition and power.
Perhaps some cases will be solved, but the resolution in Jim Thompson's novels always leaves a bittersweet taste, like half-justice or simply revenge as the only possible system of justice.
Top 3 Recommended Jim Thompson Novels
1280 souls
This novel abounds in that idea of ​​large open spaces, of calm environments, as in chicha calm that augurs the storm that invites you to continue reading. The appearance of Nick Corey, Potts County Sheriff prolongs that initial idea of ​​calm.
Until we begin to see how the type machines to remain the law before the 1.280 inhabitants of the city. Nick believes that only he can continue to maintain the necessary order and any hint of interference ends up becoming a challenge. Until Nick decides to take matters into his own hands and act secretly to perpetuate himself in his job.
When it comes to choosing the Sheriff, Nick Corey knows he just has to deal with a possible insurrection so that everyone will trust him again. The contradictory figure of the Sheriff points to a metaphor of the author's own father.
And the truth is that this autobiographical aspect is a stark, disenchanted, nihilistic point that ends up being translated into a masterful crime novel.
The killer inside of me
If you liked 1280 souls, this novel written many years before is also set in similar circumstances. It is probably again a novel in part homage to his father, the Sheriff with a heavy hand for his law and a soft hand for all legal subterfuge that may derive to his own benefit. We traveled to Central City, Texas.
The one in charge of executing the law is Lou Ford, a seemingly old-fashioned sheriff, charged with enforcing his temperance for the ultimate purpose of the law. Only Lou Ford lives with his old guilt, a murderous reminiscence that led him to kill many years ago.
It may be that Lou suffered a flare, or perhaps it was a latency psychopathy that seems to want to re-enter Lou's consciousness. The beast can be kept at bay for a while, but in the end it always comes out for more.
From his position as a representative of the law, his inner beast will find excuses to apply summary justice to many of his neighbors ... And it seems that nothing could stop him.
Son of wrath
The latest novel written by Jim Thompson is a farewell through the front door. Let's see ... I don't want to say it's his best novel, but the brutality, the transgression even, the unmitigated violence and that point of traumatic psychopathy as the foundation of evil is a farewell argument like a toast of total disenchantment.
Allen is a black boy adopted by a white woman who never wanted to be a mother but rather to find someone helpless in which to pour her hatred.
And of course, Allen, once he survived as an adult under his mother's rule, becomes the monster without filters, the cruel killer par excellence, the human without room for morals in his soul completely obscured by an atrocious world.
A tough story that is not always liked but that ultimately fascinates the great fans of the genre and those who are passionate about this author.
