Now and On Earth: Intro by Stephen King [Paperback]

Jim Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1994

An underaged bellboy thrust into an awful intimacy with grown-up vice. An alcoholic writer trying to postpone a crack-up just long enough to finish his next book. A wildly dysfunctional Okie family floundering on the edge of mutual destruction amid the deceptive plenty of wartime California.

These are the ingredients of Jim Thompson's devastating and eerily autobiographical first novel. In Now and On Earth, America's hard-boiled Dante ushers readers into his own personal hell and limns its suffering inhabitants with bleak humor and compassion.

With an introduction by Stephen King.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

An underaged bellboy thrust into an awful intimacy with grown-up vice. An alcoholic writer trying to postpone a crack-up just long enough to finish his next book. A wildly dysfunctional Okie family floundering on the edge of mutual destruction amid the deceptive plenty of wartime California.

These are the ingredients of Jim Thompson's devastating and eerily autobiographical first novel. In Now and On Earth, America's hard-boiled Dante ushers readers into his own personal hell and limns its suffering inhabitants with bleak humor and compassion.

With an introduction by Stephen King.

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).

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679740139
• ISBN-13: 978-0679740131
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #989,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Discover this guy, June 3, 2001

By 

James G. Greenhill "Jim Greenhill" (Durango, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Now and On Earth: Intro by Stephen King (Paperback)

This was Jim Thompson's first novel & it was a great start. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because I've read a couple of the others & they're better (if, for example, you read "The Killer Inside Me" I guarantee you'll want to read more of what Thompson wrote). Highly recommend reading Robert Polito's outstanding biography of Jim Thompson, "Savage Art," early on if you get even a teeny bit hooked on Thompson. Polito did a wonderful job putting everything in context, not just of Thompson's life but of the times in which he lived & the book is just a super companion to a serious reading of Thompson from which you'll learn much about, for example, how much of "Now and On Earth" is autobiographical. As for the novel, the descriptions of an aircraft manufacturing plant drag a bit at times but it's otherwise a wonderfully dark portrait of a struggling family and, in particular, a struggling young writer not unlike the author. Don't read the book expecting typical crime fiction because that's not at all what you get--it's not at all like Thompson classics such as "The Killer Inside Me." What you get here is really an extended vignette or character study (the plot is of minimal importance) & it's excellent.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The first shall be last, March 16, 2006

By 

Lawrence D. Zeilinger (Gretna, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Now and On Earth: Intro by Stephen King (Paperback)

This first novel probably would be long forgotten were it not for the subsequent noir genre classics penned by the great Jim Thompson. Fittingly, I managed to make it the last remaining work of Thompson's that I had left unread. This roman-a-clef is somewhat dated and of interest most to Thompson completists and scholars; fascinating background is found in Robert Polito's landmark "Savage Art", such as Woody Guthrie's involvement in promoting the novel. The book loosely tracks Thompson's early (but post-Oklahoma WPA communist-era) days as a nascent writer while subsisting as a San Diego aircraft factory worker beset by alcoholism. It is commendable that Black Lizard/Vintage brought this rare title back into print, but it deserves better than the generic throwaway introduction by Stephen King which has little to say about the book's context in the Thompson canon. (The King intro also incorrectly refers to the author as "Big Jim" Thompson, whom Polito states was Thompson's father). If despite the preceding caveats you decide to read this you also should get Thompson's second novel, "Heed the Thunder", to which most most of the same criticisms can be leveled. It is questionable whether either book really has survived the test of time to stand on its own feet absent the author's mythic/cult status. If you're just starting out on Thompson, read "The Killer Inside Me" and "The Getaway" and "Pop. 1280" and "After Dark, My Sweet." Excellent Thompson short stories, particularly the title piece, are found in "First This World, Then The Fireworks."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hard-boiled definition of desperation in wartime Cal., October 21, 1999

By 

Nick A. Rini - See all my reviews

This review is from: Now and On Earth: Intro by Stephen King (Paperback)

Now and On Earth is a personal favorite of mine. While this book is'nt the typical noir fare, its not about committing crimes or stopping them, instead its about a dysfunctional family in wartime California. It's a wonderful read, with fully developed characters and situations, written in a gritty noir style. This book also has a well written introduction by Stephen King as well.