Customer Reviews

The Nothing Man (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

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

 

 

This will surely draw some flak, but I prefer "The Nothing Man" to "The Killer Inside Me," the novel most people see as Thompson's best. "Killer" might be Thompson's literary masterpiece, but "Nothing" is more enjoyable as entertainment and more gripping as a crime novel.

In both cases, Thompson uses a first-person narrator who commits murder. In "Killer," sheriff's deputy Lou Ford speaks in cliches, a device that's quite effective for this novel and humorous, while in "Nothing," newsman Clinton Brown addresses the reader with wit and insight into the world around him, which makes for a much more engaging narrator than Ford could ever be. Of course, that last point is part of the effect Thompson wants with Ford: the man is dull and would be of no interest to anyone if he wasn't a murderer. Brown, on the other hand, is far from dull and is interesting as a person and not just as a murderer.

Brown's sense of humor is often bitter and usually vicious, and it suits him, his situation and "Nothing" perfectly. His description of a minor character and her fetish for mayonaise ranks, in terms of food-related humor, with Jack Nicholson's quest for toast in "Five Easy Pieces." Brown rarely lets slide an opportunity to give the needle to two other characters, his editor, Dave, and Pacific City's police chief, Lem Stukey.

Stuckey, in particular, but most of the other characters, as well, are extremely well-developed and stand on their own within the world in which "Nothing" takes place. Consider that the novel is narrated in the first person by a dyspeptic drunkard who practices frequent acts of cruelty against the people he knows, and yet Thompson still manages to draw his major characters from multiple angles. These characters and Pacific City could all be the major elements of another novel, with or without Brown, had Thompson ever wanted to revisit them or the place.

The murders have a wonderful feel to them. Brown doesn't have the hard-boiled coldness to dispatch his victims quickly or simply; he acts rashly and overheatedly twice and convinces himself he's a cool customer the third time. Bless him, too, he tries so hard to make himself look like a serial killer.

"Nothing" does have some flaws, including a tendency toward convenience and coincidence in some of the plotting, but it overcomes that on the strength of Brown's voice and how Thompson uses it to create a vivid depiction of Pacific City and its citizens.

This novel is correctly identified as a second-tier Thompson novel. Even so, it's one hell of a read. It's got everything one comes to expect from Big Jim. A dispicable, yet somehow endearing, likeable protagonist with a predilection for alcohol and women who bring out the worst in him. Thompson's descriptions of the binge drinking are excellent. Even if you've already read Thompson's "best" works, I suggest you give this one a try just for that. As in his other books, Thompson once again hits the nail right on the head when dealing with the profession of his lead character. This time around, it's a former army-man working at the Courier, a small town newspaper in Southern California. I caution the critical reader; you may find this a tad unoriginal of Thompson if you've read a lot of his other works!

This extraordinairy piece of fiction stands as one of Thompson's best. The novel poses the timeless question: what makes a man? The central guy is a re-write man on a newspaper staff and surprise surprise an alcoholic. Murder runs rampant in the Nothing Man but with special twists. One of Thompson's great first person narratives, a character whose MO is based on an internal "two-way pull," and misanthropic rage. Don't miss the Nothing Man!

In a small California town lives an ace newspaper reporter with a secret so terrible that only alcohol can hide the pain. It's a secret that so shames, disgraces and angers him that he'll do anything to keep it hidden-- even kill. Or will he? In one of his finer novels, Thompson makes masterful use of an unreliable narrator who may or may not have committed the murders he's confessing to. An intense and page-turning look at one miserable man, capped off with an ending that will stun you.

Despite a contrived "happy" ending forced on by the original publisher (see Savage Art, Bio of Jim Thompson), Nothing Man remains a harrowing look into the dementia of lost manhood. It also serves to indict the politics behind journalism and police corruption. Each of its 24 "mini"- chapters ends on a jolting surprise or revelation, making it a fast page-turner. I first read Thompson 8 years ago, and he's remained one of my top three or four favorites ever since -- along with Chuck Palahnuik, Herbert Selby Jr., and Seth Morgan. If you like your fiction hard-edged, suspensefully-plotted and with touches of dark hilarity -- go for the Nothing Man and the rest of the Thompson canon.

I felt the same way about this book as Iazza did, but I'd add that the how in this whodunit--the deed around which much of the speculation takes place (I'm attempting here not to reveal details)--was hard to follow, and then, when revealed, hardly believable.

This is the least convincing happy ending I've ever read, proving conclusively that Thompson had no aptitude for portraying happiness. Prior to that the book is great in Thompson's twisted sort of way. Clint Brown, like Lou Ford and other Thompson "heroes", is so bright and cynical that you can't help being simultaneously entertained and appalled by him.

Although "The Killer Inside me" and "Pop. 1280" are better known, this novel is one of Thompson's best as well. While most of his books have slack passages, this one is tight all the way through, and the character, a living metaphor, emobodies the idea of the book in every word and deed. The extreme toughness of this book is more subdued than other Thompson books, but that makes the effect of the novel that much more powerful. The richest of his novels.

Even after the opening few lines one senses 'The Nothing Man' is very much all-Thompson: desperate characters, lots of boozing, crackling dialogue, and a wee bit of murder. The chemistry is all there yet, for this reader, the story just didn't ignite ... despite the anticipation that any moment it would.

In our story we have junior hack working at a local newspaper who is really in bad shape. He's a boozer. His estranged wife is a tramp. And his mind is really twisted evidently because his, ahem, 'male member' got blown off by a landmine during the war. Very quickly he loses what little sanity he has and, in a "I can get away with anything" fashion, goes on a rampage. Enough said, but I will add that Jim Thompson has also thrown in a curious surprise in the final pages.

Bottom line: vintage Jim Thompson without the extra bite and cleverness of his better works.

In "Nothing Man', Jim Thompson invites a long walk with Clinton Brown but he forces the reader to look inside the reader's own mind. In startling murder after murder Author Thompson turns the reader into a long thread which he interweaves with the thread that is Clint "Brownie" Brown. i could not divorce myself from Clint Brown. There were times I wanted to hold Clint Brown close and comfort him yet felt the necessity of keeping one hand close to my concealed Charter Arms Pink Lady .38.