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Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson
Robert Polito recounts Thompson's relationship with his father, a disgraced Oklahoma sheriff, with the women he adored in life and murdered on the page, with alcohol, would-be censors, and Hollywood auteurs. Unrelenting and empathetic, casting light into the darker caverns of our collective psyche, Savage Art is an exemplary homage to an American original. A National Book...more
Paperback, 560 pages
Published
October 1st 1996
by Vintage
(first published 1995)
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In the early '7os, after years of battling the bottle; churning out dime store pulp fiction which barely covered his liquor bill, author Jim Thompson had finally struck paydirt. Hollywood had come a knockin'. Tinsel Town's #1 box office draw, Steve McQueen, wanted the movie rights to Thompson's 1959 crime noir classic, "The Getaway."
Broke, out of print, and unable to write, Thompson stood to make more dough from the film rights to his book, then he'd earned in his entire career as a novelist. A...more
Broke, out of print, and unable to write, Thompson stood to make more dough from the film rights to his book, then he'd earned in his entire career as a novelist. A...more
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An exhausting, revealing and cumbersome biography of one of the greatest (and at times, most uninspired) American crime writers. Polito doesn't hold back detailing the Thompson family prior to the writer's birth, and painstakingly moves ahead into his troubled childhood (no, not as wretched as some might expect). It becomes clear to the reader that Thompson was a sensitive observer with an eye towards the gutter, whether working at a seedy hotel in Texas, or later, when he became involved with t...more
Monumental literary bio of noir titan Jim Thompson (The Getaway, The Grifters etc.) by pre-eminent noir editor-anthologist Robert Polito (Library of America Noir volumes.) Rich in detail. Deep in research. Thompson was enormously prolific and the quality of his work could vary, but no one can truly understand the American hard-bolied genres in all its variants and successors without knowing his work. A true touchstone.
More than a little exhaustive. I could have done without much of it, especially his early life, which I found to be a yawn. But later, when the novels and their circumstances were discussed, things perked up. And then, there was the picture of him with the cat. That alone was worth working through countless yawns.
Cumbersome collection of all things Thompson. An impressive but overweight work.
Love Thompson, hated the biography.
Jim Thompson wrote such classics as THE KILLER INSIDE ME, NOTHING MORE THAN MURDER and THE GETAWAY, amongst so many other great works.
This searing, non-holds barred account of his life and death is at once tragic and inspiring. It's a downer because Thompson never received the acclaim he deserved during his lifetime; it's a lift because if ever a writer spewed his psyche onto the printed page and lived eternally because of it, Jim Thompson is The Man.
If you love Thompson, this is a 'must read.'
This searing, non-holds barred account of his life and death is at once tragic and inspiring. It's a downer because Thompson never received the acclaim he deserved during his lifetime; it's a lift because if ever a writer spewed his psyche onto the printed page and lived eternally because of it, Jim Thompson is The Man.
If you love Thompson, this is a 'must read.'
One of the best biographies I've ever read. Even the early slow parts are interesting. I would wager that everything you would ever want to know about Thompson is in this book. Some might say it would make an interesting film, but no, it has to be a book. Read it and you'll see what I mean. I was going through a tough time back when I read this book, and it helped pull me through. The photos included are excellent.
Sep 04, 2011
Susanne
added it
I've had to put reading this on hold because it gives away a lot of the plots of his books and I haven't read them all yet.
Carefully researched & well written.
A long tough read, but well worth it for any fan of Thompson. His life was as hard, mean, and interesting as those of the lives of his characters. A greater appreciation of his novels is the result of this exhaustive look at the writer's life.
Drunk at 12, Thompson established his sense of the noir and blackened it with venomous prose. Polito covers all the bases, empties all the closets to portray Thompson, one of Oklahoma's greatest, and least sung, writers.
Swell biography of the master of literary noir. Thompson's life was extremely fucked up, and Polito pays him the respect he deserves without ever letting him off the hook.
not (nearly) as great as thompson's books, but a dang interesting biography.
Jim Thompson's life was like one of his books. Bummer for Jim Thompson.
An interesting assessment of JT
Sep 07, 2008
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Robert Polito (born 1951) is an American academic, critic and poet. He has been Director of the Writing Program at The New School since 1992. He received the National Book Critics Circle Award and an Edgar Award for Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson.
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