The Grifters
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Product Description
Product Description
Roy Dillon is young, good-looking and devastatingly charming. He's also a completely amoral con man. Lily, his mother, works for the mob. Moira Langtry, Roy's mistress, is always looking for the main chance, and so is Carol Roberg, the nurse brought in to look after Roy when a bad choice of mark means he has an unfortunate encounter with a baseball bat and a bad case of internal bleeding. Together they make up a perverse quadrangle of love and greed in a coruscating novel of corruption.
About the Author
Jim Thompson was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. After an itinerant childhood during which his sheriff father was driven from office for embezzlement; and as a roughneck in the Texan oil fields of the 1920s, Thompson became successful as a writer with the pulp fiction houses of the 1950s, writing a dozen of his more enduring novels in just 19 months. He also wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films The Killing and Paths of Glory).
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First Sentence
As Roy Dillon stumbled out of the shop his face was a sickish green, and each breath he drew was an incredible agony. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
As Roy Dillon stumbled out of the shop his face was a sickish green, and each breath he drew was an incredible agony. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jim Thompson hits new heights with this fabulous character study of three outcast grifters. Less action and more introspection than you would usually expect from Thompson. However, this allows him to exhibit his writing skills to the fullest with beautiful imagery and poetic philosophical expositions. If anyone tries to tell you that hard-boiled fiction is not literature, make them read this book. Plus, the surprise ending will leave you speechless for days.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Noir" is an over-used cliche now - every crime writer since James Ellroy in the last 15 years likes to be called a "noir" writer, but few ever really are, or were. Jim Thompson WAS. This is perhaps one of the top 5 crime novels ever written, there are no boring detectives with drab, shaky personal lives within these pages: instead the story is told entirely from the criminal's point of view. And no, he's not a serial killer either, he is a professional grifter (conman). I won't spoil the plot, except to say that this is a brilliant portrait of the loneliness of the true criminal - no ties, no friends, just the constant staying-ahead of the law, and the accumulation of money for the distant day when the criminal plans to quit "the life". It ends with a shocking, gripping twist in the tale - true noir.
Format:Paperback
A short read but a good one. Gets straight into the story with very little preamble or pretence, well written and well read.
Haven't seen the film so I couldn't compare it, but I did envisage Anjelica Houston in the mothers role.
Would definately recommend.
Haven't seen the film so I couldn't compare it, but I did envisage Anjelica Houston in the mothers role.
Would definately recommend.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
This Tommy Gun Doesn't Fire Blanks
Jim's had high hopes for reality at one particular time but these were dashed in the 1930's. His life ebbed away in back breaking jobs as he sacrificed himself for his family. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by Dr. Delvis Memphistopheles
Superb thriller
This is first rate entertainment. The story is gripping and its telling is harsh and compelling, in the best traditions of noir. Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2008 by CJ
Overrated and boring - a crime for Thompson
For some reason, The Grifters is not as interesting to me as it is a lot of people. I can't really put my finger on it, but the novel is quite boring, which is unusual for... Read more
Published on 10 July 1999
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