The Getaway [Paperback]

Jim Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1984

Doc McCoy knows everything there is to know about pulling off the perfect bank job. But there are some things he has forgotten--such as a partner who is not only treacherous but insane and a wife who is still an amateur. Worst of all, McCoy has forgotten that when the crime is big and bloody enough, there is no such thing as a clean getaway.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Doc McCoy knows everything there is to know about pulling off the perfect bank job. But there are some things he has forgotten--such as a partner who is not only treacherous but insane and a wife who is still an amateur. Worst of all, McCoy has forgotten that when the crime is big and bloody enough, there is no such thing as a clean getaway. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

(1906 - 1977) James Meyers Thompson was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He began writing fiction at a very young age, selling his first story to True Detective when he was only fourteen. Thompson eventually wrote twenty-nine novels, all but three of which were published as paperback originals. Thompson also wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films “The Killing” and “Paths of Glory”). An outstanding crime writer, the world of his fiction is rife with violence and corruption. In examining the underbelly of human experience and American society in particular, Thompson’s work at its best is both philosophical and experimental. Several of his novels have been filmed by American and French directors, resulting in classic noir including The Killer Inside Me (1952), After Dark My Sweet (1955), and The Grifters (1963). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Creative Arts Book Co; First Edition edition (September 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916870758
• ISBN-13: 978-0916870751
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,223,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic pulp fiction with a surreal ending., January 31, 2006

By 

Michael G. "mikefromrochester" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Getaway (Paperback)

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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars And another such victory, February 20, 2002

By 

Paul Miller "___[_]D___" (Memphis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Getaway (Paperback)

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."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars on the road to nowhere..., December 28, 2001

By 

lazza (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Getaway (Paperback)

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)