Customer Reviews

The Rip-Off

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I'm a huge Jim Thompson fan, but I did not enjoy this book at all. Britt Rainstar is the protagonist. As is typical of a Thompson character, Rainstar owes lots of money and is in lots of trouble. Enter Manuela Aloe, a sexy and wealthy woman who takes a liking to Rainstar and hires him to write pamphlets for her company. Aloe is tough and when she finds out that Rainstar is married, mysterious things start to happen to him, including being threatened by a man in a skeleton costume. Is Aloe the one behind all of it? The plot could have been quite interesting, but instead is filled with unbelievable coincidences and characters. None of it really makes much sense and I didn't care what happened to Rainstar. This was Thompson's last book, and was published after his death. One can't help but wonder whether it was actually finished at the time of his death. A real disappointment. If you haven't read Thompson before, start with "The Killer In Me," "The Grifters," or any one of his other classics.

This is Jim Thompson's attempt to write a funny book.

He should not have tried.

Whereas there are a few good comic juxtapositions, the basic fact is that the characters are unbelievable, unlikeable, and forgettable. The plot contrivances depend upon outrageous coincidences, unlikely motivations, and incompetent authorities.

Imagine the Munsters mixed with Elmore Leonard and you get a sense of what this book is like.

I've read most of his work. This is the first really bad one.

I suggest you don't waste your time as I did.

Ripoff was released after the great Jim Thompson had passed away, and you can tell. Great writers know what books to release and what books to throw in the trunk, and this is one of the latter. This book is written in a comic style, but it's not funny in the slightest. There is nothing hard-boiled about it either, and neither the characters or the plot is interesting or innovative. Please, put this book down, and pick up any of Thompson's classic works.

-Rip Off is worth a read, especially for the Jim Thompson enthusiast. Last thing Thompson wrote before he died. The first chapter just tugs you right in. Forget about putting it down. The protagonist is great. Any man who thinks he was meant for bigger and better will associate with him. Ok- so here's the question...I read the New Black Mask Quarterly #1 in 1985 which included the First few chapters of Rip Off. However it said that Thompson died before he could arrange the typescript. That's the problem. You can really tell that Jim Thompson couldn't go back to put his finishing touches on the story. But read it anyway. Its still better than anything Robert B. Parker ever wrote. amen

I am a huge Jim Thompson fan. I think he is quite possibly the most under appreciated modern American fiction author. So I want to warn other fans of Thompson if you pick this book up expecting a standard Thompson novel you will be very disappointed. Where as Thompson's novels are usually dark and brooding this one is dark and comic. There are times when its a little over the top but other times where it really strikes a chord. The whole idea of the hero whose home is next to an ever expanding mountain of garbage is a great metaphor for modern America. So if you are new to Thompson by all means DON'T buy this book. Get After Dark My Sweet, or The Killer Inside Me, or The Getaway, or The Grifters. But if you have read all those books already and are a Thompson fan and want to see him take an interesting trek in a different direction check this out.

It's hard to know what to say about this very silly, slapstick attempt at humor by Jim Thompson, one of the legendary grandmasters of noir. It's embarrassingly bad and the fact it was only published posthumously indicates the author himself knew it wasn't worth releasing.

A standard feature of many Jim Thompson novels is the device of pulling the rug out from under the reader. We expect one thing to happen but then, out of left field, the exact opposite occurs. That's something Thompson does better than anyone else and is a contributing factor to his enviable reputation as a cult hero.

In what would seem to be an ill advised try at self-parody, Thompson pulls the rug from out under the reader in almost every one of the 30+ chapters of The Rip-Off, thereby nullifying the effect. Instead of surprise, shock and wonderment, the reader is left to feel confusion, a minor sense of betrayal and bemused pity for the author. Don't make the same mistake I did, avoid this book at all costs.

The Rip-Off is both light and dark, in different sorts of ways, and it is this ambiguity, as well as deft characterization, which raises the book above the usual thriller. The editor dubs the book a 'screwball comedy of terrors,' but it is also filled with instances of genuine creepy foreboding and menace, stemming from deranged characters. Jim Thompson was Blue Velvet before Blue Velvet. The characters, like everybody, are pretty straightforward on the one hand, but just about all of them also has a secret or a darker side. I think we've all known people who are a little 'too' something--Thompson runs with this sort of insight. The protagonist, Britt Rainster, is thrown into a world which he cannot understand, and in which pleasure, and terror visit with the predictability of the roulette wheel. The absurdity of circumstance is country kin with themes in existentialism, which is one reason the French probably found the author so endearing. I say protagonist but Rainstar is also a flawed anti-hero. "I was placed on the path of least resistance early in life, and I remained on it despite my growing awareness that promise was not synonymous with delivery. I had gathered too much speed to get off, and I could find no better path to be on anyway. I'm sure you've seen people like me." We can all sympathize with a making our way as best we can in a world which is both tantalizing and threatening.

Recommended as a page-turner which rises above the usual thriller.