Customer Reviews

Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson

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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.

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.

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.

Jim Thompson was largely forgotten when he died in 1977. The years since his death have brought about a new appreciation for his work. Robert Polito tells readers Thompson's life story in Savage Art. Amazingly, Thompson's life story might be even better than any of the stories that he told in his books.

Polito has done a masterful job of research and he illuminates Thompson's fascinating, tragic life. Thompson's best books are rooted in his unsatisfying relationship with his father, a small-town sheriff who made - and lost - several fortunes while his son was young. Partly as a result of his father's problems, Jim Thompson worked in an incredible range of jobs (bellboy, oil-field worker, door-to-door salesmen, journalist, etc.) and traveled all over the United States. Polito helps his readers understand how Thompson's background influenced his work.

For all of Thompson's skill as a writer, he was a bitterly-unhappy alcoholic who spent his life in poverty. Savage uncovers Thompson's horrible decisions and wasted opportunities in a narrative that both fascinates and repels. The string of catastrophes recounted in Savage Art will make many readers cringe.

While Savage Art is very readable, I have a few quibbles about it. The book (at 508 pages) should be about 100 pages shorter. Polito goes off on too many tangents for my taste. He chose to include the entire text from scores of letters written by Thompson and to Thompson. Polito also goes into excruciating detail about Thompson's mother's and father's family backgrounds. A good editor would have helped Polito trim some fat from Savage Art.

I first read Savage Art in the mid-1990s and I thought that it was great. My local library had an old copy in its discards for 50 cents, so I read it again this summer (2009). Once again, Savage Art held my attention. History will decide where Thompson stands among the great crime-fiction writers. Whatever the verdict, crime-fiction fans will enjoy Savage Art.

Since I read a Jim Thompson novel for the first time, I though he was truly one of America's most gifted and important writers. A literary heir to the likes of Chandler and Cain, he was, like them, able to raise the mystery genre to a whole new level of American literature. Of course, whether you like Thompson's work or not, is entirely subjective, but if you admire him as much as I do. "Savage Art" by Ron Polito is an important key to understanding Thompson and his work. Like most independent geniuses, Thompson led a hard and often lonely life which he put into his writing. HIs characters wear masks so much that they often don't know who they are. Polito picks up on this recurring theme and uses it to explore Thompson's turbulent life and use of masks. This book made me appreciate Thompson even more and I've reread all of his books since finishing "it. This bio is truly a key to understanding and appreciating Thompson's work to it fullest extent.

If there was ever an American original, it's Jim Thompson. His dark and deranged world-view, expressed in a series of cheap paperbacks in the fifties and sixties, revels in the that part of the American psyche that we ignore and are afraid to look at. Polito's detailed bio explains where Thompson came from, and the events that molded him into the premier writer of American noir. Even if you aren't interested in Thompson and his work, this is an exquisite biography.

I suppose when an author pens a biography of another author, the reader should not expect the biography to provide the same level of reader delight as the author whom the biography covers. Don't get me wrong, Polito does a good job, and he certainly is not a hack writer. His analysis is steady without flights of fancy about Thompson's motives, but it's not too interesting either. Yes, Thompson lived a tought life in Texas and Oklahoma as his flitty father bounced from one dream deal to another, and his time spent in the Texas oil rig jungle is informative not only about Thompson but about the times and condiitons where he lived. Bringing in excerpts from Thompson's writings to explain (or perhaps just to connect the dots) events in his life with parallels in his writings doesn't always work. Yes, the reader can see his father in life and in the person of a corrupt official in one of Thompson's novels, but one can never see the genius--the why.

This award-winning book certainly deserves any awards based on the good scholarship Polito brings to the effort. The details, though, sometimes bog the reader down in minutiae that seem to detract from who Thompson was. One of the more interestings periods of Thompson's life was while working with the WPA as a writer working on the Oklahoma Guide. The connections with the writers and the communist and socialist, including Thompson, even Thompson's activitist role in the WWW is rendered in such detail that the reader wonders why Polito brings in all the detail -- which seems almost like the minutes of a party meeting -- that he does. However, whether intentionally or not, Polito puts the lie to the contention that mystery writers are right-wing apologists for capitalism. Thompson (and perhaps even more so Lous L'Amour who was part of Thompson's group of writers who were involved in Oklahoma's communist party) were not just hacks churning out pulp fiction for the he-man magazines but were men of conscience who were well aware of the plight of the working man during this era in this time and place. The fact that Thompson gave up the party doesn't detract (or indict) from his deep feelings for injustices he experienced in his life and saw in others.

All in all, Polito's work represents excellent scholarship, and in reading this book, you will come away with a close rendering of Jim Thompson's life. However, while well documented and certainly with a pedestrian scholarship, I never felt that Polito found the source of Thomson's real genius.

I highly recommend this 1995 National Book Award winner. Thorough and utterly engrossing, Savage Art will satisfy both longtime Thompson fans and neophytes, providing stunning insight into the man as well as the autobiographical aspects of his ofttimes sordid fictional output. Definitely a must read for those who appreciate noir.

Polito wrote a masterpiece on the subjetc. Impressive book for all who whant to decipher who was the incredible writer Jim Thompson.
Plus the writer includes fragmentary notes of lost papers, and of books written by Jimmy now out of print, lots of pictures, newspapers notices's...It is a great book ( and a big one: 500 pages!). I would like to know if Polito had the birth certificate of Jim, because I'm an astrologer and very curious to know the hour he was born!
Clélia Romano
clelia.romano@gmail.com

it's amazing to me how some people never seem to realize the importance of authors like thompson, who actually poke into the dark side of our minds and make us think.also, polito's work is ireplacable and excellent.