Savage Night [Paperback]

Jim Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 1991

Is Carl Bigelow a fresh-faced college kid looking for a room, or is he a poised hit man tracking down his victim? And if Carl is really two people, what about everyone around him? Savage Night is Thompson at his best, with plot reversals and nightmarish shifts of identity.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Is Carl Bigelow a fresh-faced college kid looking for a room, or is he a poised hit man tracking down his victim? And if Carl is really two people, what about everyone around him? Savage Night is Thompson at his best, with plot reversals and nightmarish shifts of identity.

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: 160 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (November 5, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679733108
• ISBN-13: 978-0679733102
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jim Thompson: SAVAGE writer, June 1, 2002

By 

Andrew M (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Savage Night (Paperback)

I'm a HUGE fan of so-called "hard-boiled" and "pulp" fiction, but strangely enough I've avoided Jim Thompson...a little like an avid mountain climber not wanting to tackle Mt. Everest. Mr. Thompson's reputation has always gotten in the way of me wanting to read him and I was scared of the possibility of my being disappointed.....

Well SAVAGE NIGHT is my de-virginizing experience of reading a Jim Thompson novel (and no, watching THE GRIFTERS, THE GETAWAY, and THE KILLING doesn't count) well dammit if the man isn't a kick you in the groin, grab you by the shirt, slap you in the face writer----the kind I LOVE!!!!

SAVAGE NIGHT follows a doomed hit-man on his last legs (and teeth and eyes for that matter) who latches himself onto a dead - end town to do a killin' for THE MAN.

Suspicions, betrayals, and desperation follow him like a sick shadow......and well, let's just say that more than one corpse lays lifeless by the end of these bloody pages.

A quick read and entertaining one...if you're into black coffee/unfiltered cigarette lit.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thompson's Darkest Ending, June 28, 2000

By 

R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Savage Night (Paperback)

Thompson was famous for his nihilistic endings, and it's hard to beat this one. His depiction of total insanity and the bloody violence he saw in endemic to the human condition will chill you to the bone. Forget Stephen King: Thompson is the most frightening American writer you will ever read.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Thompson's best!, February 25, 2002

By 

Mr. Hard Boiled (any town, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Savage Night (Paperback)

This is one of Thompson's best doomed novels. Carl Bigelow, like most of Jim Thompson's better protagonists is born broken. Unlike typical noir, there isn't some line that Carl Bigelow has crossed that has doomed him; he had no chance from birth. And unlike most of Thompson's protagonists, Bigger is physically a mess. There's just not much of him left. He needs his glasses, false teeth, toupe and platform shoes to make him somewhat of a whole man. And what with suffering from consumption, there's less of him all the time.

The ending of this one is dizzying.

Note. As he does in several of his works, Jim Thompson makes a subtle cameo in this one.