Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson [Paperback]

Robert Polito (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

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 Critics Circle Award winner. 57 photos.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jim Thompson was one of the greatest crime novelists ever, leaving behind a legacy of hard-boiled classics like The Grifters and The Getaway. Robert Polito has written the definitive biography of this brilliant American original. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A series of Vintage reprints and Hollywood films like The Getaway and The Grifters have helped develop a wider popular and critical following for crime author Jim Thompson (1906-1977) than he sustained while alive. More twisted, sadistic and nihilistic than Chandler or Caine, Thompson's trademarks were his fiendish first-person psychopaths and lowlifes and his grim tales of failed lives and thwarted crimes. Polito, director of the writing program at Manhattan's New School, here untangles the man from his two-volume autobiography (Bad Boy and Roughneck), revealing a maverick alcoholic who was dogged by spells of depression and missed opportunities throughout his hand-to-mouth career. The son of a corrupt Oklahoma sheriff who lost his money speculating in oil, Thompson had his first alcohol-induced nervous breakdown as a hotel busboy in Ft. Worth while still in high school. He oscillated between low-wage jobs, hack journalism and literary circles for the rest of his life; joined the Communist Party in 1936; briefly became director of the Oklahoma Writer's Project; and struggled to publish novels that were often either too dark or slapdash for the mainstream. He enjoyed his most prolific period under editor Arnold Halo at Lion Books in the 1950s, eventually landing in Hollywood as a part-time film and television writer. This meticulous study adroitly evokes the rise of pulp adventure and crime magazines like Saga and True Detective, where Thompson honed his style, and the seedy underworld of hoboes and grifters who formed the models for his "savage art." Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679733523
• ISBN-13: 978-0679733522
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #462,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Detail and Research, June 28, 2000

By 

R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson (Paperback)

I didn't think it was possible to write a full-scale biography of Thompson because of his scattered, secret life. But Polito has pulled off the seemingly impossible. He gathers together unexpected facts from obscure sources in places all over the country. He combines this with excellent, insightful analysis of this tortured writer's work. When I first read Thompson's novels back in the mid-'80's, it felt like my brain was being turned inside out. I was so astonished I went out and bought every one. Now thanks to Polito we can begin to understand the sources of the horror and the humanity of his novels.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched but disappointing..., November 29, 2009

By 

C. Malon - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson (Paperback)

Meticiously researched and winning awards, this biography of the writer is ultimatly over-written, and too often, is boring.

The author attemps to draw similarities betweein Thompson's life and thought processes by inclunding passages from his works which becomew boring in the extreme. This will prove especially irritating to all but the individual who has read the majority of Thompson novels and short stories. The author constantly divulges every aspect of Thompson's works, down to the smallest detail. New readers of Thompson will likely feel they've already read Thompson's entire output.

This is a valid biographical tool but the author relies on it too much. The rememerances of family, associates, friends, and others who knew Thompson are also carried to the extreme. It seems every two or three paragraphs is followed by a 'rememberance' or section of Thompson's work. I probably skipped half the book due to this irrirating habit of the author trying to analyze Thompson
through these devices.

The hard facts of Thompson's life are fascinating, however, and I
found myself wondering how with all his hangups, family problems,
heavy drinking, and such how Thompson managed to live as long as he did. Thompson was a troubled individual his entire life and it
is obvious he poured much of his fears and frustrations into his incredible works.

I can recommend this book to the devoted Thompson fan since it does detail his life nicely but be aware that even the most hardened fan will find it hard going.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, illuminating, meticulously researched., November 16, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson (Paperback)

Savage Art is a truly remarkable work of scholarship. In it, Robert Polito meticulously separates out fact from the considerable amount of mythology that surrounds Jim Thompson's life.
Since so much of what Thompson wrote is autobiographical in origin, a knowledge of Thompson's very unusual life history helps the reader better appreciate his work. So it is not at all hard to argue that this is not only a well written and fascinating biography, it is an important one as well.
Polito explains, in exacting detail, how Thompson's life and consequently his writing was influenced by the interpersonal and societal forces he encountered as he matured.
To put it another way. Jim Thompson's worldview was shaped, nurtured and, some would say, warped by his life experiences.
He then took this unique worldview and used it to interpret the self same experiences which formed it. The result is Thompson's very significant contribution to 20th century American fiction. Dark, disturbing books inhabited by sad, desperate characters trapped in hideous circumstances. These are novels that boldly explore areas that would otherwise be unexplorable.
Savage Art is very much a monumental achievement. Essential reading for Jim Thompson fans.