Customer Reviews

The Getaway

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Doc McCoy is a criminal mastermind and his wife Carol is his willing accomplice. After a particularly bloody bank heist, the two of them make their way to California only a step or two ahead of the law and a former colleague hellbent on killing them. Their plan is to sneak into Mexico and permanently avoid capture by living amongst a criminal colony beyond the reach of justice.

The Getaway is a short, fast paced novel that adheres to the traditional conventions of pulp fiction. The narrative is unapologetically violent and gut wrenchingly raw as it tells of Doc and Carol's murderous exploits. But there's more to it than that. Thompson skillfully imbues the characters, even the most minor ones, with a psychological complexity breathtaking to behold.

About three quarters of the way through, Thompson surprises the reader by making the storyline ever increasingly surreal. Ultimately, creating a world that can only be described as Kafkaesque in its depraved yet methodical bizareness. A lesser author would never have been able to pull off such a monumental transition in narrative tone. Yet Thompson makes it work and in doing so has created an experimental novel that has deservedly become a classic.

The Getaway begins with a bank robbery that puts Doc McCoy and his wife Carol to running across country. This flight of theirs makes up most of the book and the pace is unrelenting. Along the way they jump trains, steal cars, hide underwater in two caves and in a hollowed out manure pile. Doc and his wife will kill anyone who gets in their way. They are trying to get down to Mexico where a man called El Rey has a criminal sanctuary lying in a small coastal group of mountains... El Rey's kingdom is no utopia however. There is nothing but the best to be had and it all cost plenty. When your money runs out so does your luck you are taken to a little village to starve to death. It is a place of cross and double cross as people try to make their money stretch further. It's a waking nightmare for Doc and Carol. The last line has confused many readers, it comes from a quote about the Alamo. Santa Anna, coldly gazing at the piles
of dead and wounded soldiers all about the Alamo mission, is said to have
casually dismissed the siege as "a small affair," Following this comment, a
senior commander is said to have replied....."And another such victory will
ruin us."

The Getaway is vintage Jim Thompson: a short, bleak story of 1950s down-and-outs, deadbeats and criminals. Much of his novels are heavy on punchy, "in your face" dialogue which would make fans of traditional fine literature cringe. It has a movie script feel about it which, for this reader, makes the story more intense.

In The Getaway we have a married pair of ex-cons making a getaway from a rather botched bank robbery. Neither person is pretty or especially likeable. Yet their desperate plight to make a getaway is fascinating ... and they go about matters in a very rough-handed fashion (cold-blooded murders abound). Yet in the end they come to the realization their getaway will not gain them any sense of happiness or closure. The ending (..no spoilers here) is most poignant. If our "Bonnie and Clyde wannabes" weren't such a heartless couple I'd almost feel sorry for them.

Bottom line: no, not Jim Thompson's best (which is The Killer Inside Me). But he was certainly on top form when he wrote The Getaway. Highly recommended.

(and no, I've never seen any film adaptation of The Getaway)

The book begins wth a bank robbery masterminded by the criminal genius Doc McCoy. The rest of the plot involves the desperate escape from the authorities. The best part of this book is the ending, in which everybody gets what they deserve.

Two movies have been made of this book. The most recent movie (starring the vile Alex Baldwin and Kim Basinger) was terrible. Do not let the movie prevent you from reading this book.
The best part - the ending- was left out of both movies to make the characters appear more noble . They are not noble. They are treacherous murderous theives. If your idea of a good time is to spend time with hard-boiled criminals with black hearts, then this is the book for you

"The Getaway" is another classic crime noir from Jim Thompson. The main character, Doc McGraw, is a bank robber who is sprung from jail by his wife, Carol, who may or may not have slept with a member of the pardon board. After he's released, Doc robs a bank and he and Carol go on the run. Everything that can go wrong does, which builds a great deal of anxiety and mistrust between Doc and Carol. The book has some great twists and turns and a fairly surreal ending.

A 1972 movie was made from the book starring Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw. That movie is pretty good, but differs vastly from the novel. Specifically, the movie is a love-on-the-run chase movie, while the book is about the mistrust between cons. As such, the book is much more complex and enjoyable. Highly recommended for fans of Jim Thompson and/or crime novels.

This book was my first foray into the books of famous pulp writer Thompson, although of course I've seen a few movies based on other work of his (The Grifters, After Dark My Sweet). This slim book tells a very simple tale about a bank heist, the falling out of thieves afterward, and their attempt to elude the police dragnet make it to the Mexican border, where a paradise awaits them. Simple enough, with just the right number of characters and complexity for the movies (which is why it's been made into one twice, first in 1972, then in 1993). It's all very fun to read, and you find yourself rooting for the husband and wife team of robbers to make it out...let's just say there's an unexpected ending which lifts the book out of the realm of pulp fiction, and into that of morality play. I plan on reading some more Jim Thompson.

There are no heroes in The Getaway. As a matter of fact there is no-one who is remotely likable, trustworthy or who contains a shred of decency. It's about a group of criminals who are just as dangerous to their colleagues as they are to the innocent victims who cross their paths.

The story starts off with the well-planned and executed robbery of a bank. During and immediately after the heist the criminals' callous disregard for human life is displayed. These are ruthless, desperate and even deranged people. We then follow their getaway as they do their best to stay a step ahead of the law.

The main characters are the husband and wife team of Doc and Carol McCoy. Theirs is a tense relationship with Doc's ever-present menace thinly hidden by his outward calm demeanour. The tension in the relationship stems from the fact that Carol is well aware of what Doc is capable and doesn't quite trust him. He rules with a soft voice but backs up with a fist of iron which can hit with devastating suddenness.

I thought the ending was brilliantly ironic and packed with poetic justice. It's not one of those shock endings, rather it's a slow realisation that begins to dawn and then has the power to remain in the consciousness long after finishing the book. On the whole, this is a dark look at the underbelly of society told with a brutal frankness that sets the mood to perfection.

Jim Thompson's knack is to get me to feel sorry for the bad guy. Just like his other must reads, Pop. 1280 and The Killer Inside Me, I find my self rooting for the folks whom I find despicable in real life. I first read this about six years ago, and after I felt it was good but not as strong as Pop or Killer; now I rank it right up there with those classics. This quick read has one of the more intriguing endings, too.

If you have ever considered robbing a bank, then I suggest you start by reading this book. After 184 pages you'll quickly decide that all you're in for is a life of worry...and a quickly diminishing bank account.

The Getaway tells the story of Doc and Carol McCoy and how they have robbed a bank with just over $200,000 and are attempting to flee the country. Of course along the way they have to escape the police, fellow henchman out to kill them, petty thieves, and numerous problems that they could never have predicted. The two work together because they are in love and know that as a team they CAN succeed. Which leaves us to their final destination the town of EL REY, where it is made painfully clear - if you want to survive you need to look out for #1. What will become of our beloved protagonists? Well Good Reader go and discover this for yourselves. Here you will find a simple tale of escape that turns shockingly into a study in ethics. To say The Getaway is a fast and exciting read would be an understatement.

Characters in this story are portrayed very realisticaly. I continually come back to a 48-hour stretch where Carol McCoy is forced to sleep in a cramped watery cave that is so narrow she can't even turn around. The claustrophobia leaps off of the page! Jim Thompson's books have stayed in publication for decades for a reason. This is classic crime noir and it is highly recommended.

On a closing side note - For movie fans out there I also recommend Quentin Tarantino's FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN on DVD. In the audio commentary Tarantino comments on The Getaway and how he incorporated the setting of El Rey into his movie. It's a fun look at a celebrity's appreciation of this novel.

I've read all the novels and storys of 'Dougs' Kafka. Who writes great surreal tense stuff. But no writer I've ever read can hit like Thompson does, Reading his books leaves me feeling more sick and bewildered than kafka ever could (not that i'm saying he's better than Kafka). I read American Psycho and it did absolutely nothing for me this book is ten times as sickening. Thompson gets in your head slowly, making you think you know and like his charachters, know whats going on, then he opens it wide with a hatchet and all the conceptions you had fall away with your oozing brains as the charachters reveal themselves to be utter scum. Thompson is a goddamn misanthropic genius! It may be true that pulp is "bush league" but some writers can transverse genre. Thompson is one of those writers.