Well, well, well, guess who's from Oklahoma?? Yes, Garth Brooks. Sigh, and Toby Keith. Naturally, Larry Clark. And, ya know, Jim Thompson. Was my point. I should've known that a man with such a rotten view of humanity came from the birthplace of so many rotten things, including my own rotten view of humanity.No surprise, this book is rotten, though occasionally quite funny. It's the story of a "nice, young" man named Carl Bigelow who shows up in a small college town mid-semester in order to audit courses, arousing suspicion when he opts to rent a room from a notorious mafia turncoat. Since he's telling the story, I wouldn't be a snot-nosed little spoiler punk to tell you when he takes his makeup off (contacts and false teeth), he's a frightening, scuzzy, wanted contract killer. Under threat of death if he fails, he proceeds to plan a murder made to look like an accident. His dick gets in the way, like they do, and complicated things get even more complicated. Like they do. Not one, but two ladies pull at his loyalties, and his paranoia swells as he becomes more and more convinced that someone, everyone? works for the mob boss who forcefully hired him, and is spying, sabotaging, planning his death. Did I mention he has tuberculosis? Yeah, Carl's life is pretty suck right now, and he can't even sex it away. Carnage ensues.Lessons: Before you kiss a man, pull at his front teeth to make sure they don't come out. Check the doors of walk-in freezers to ensure they have emergency exit buttons. Even if you think it's sexy to plan a man's murder with his wife as your accomplice, consider for a moment what else that situation might imply about her. Witness Protection exists for a reason. If the mob wants to murder you, don't wander the streets of your hometown, alone and blackout-drunk every night. Avoid Oklahoma. And most importantly, always compliment old ladies on their funny hats. Why? Because it's sweet and it makes them feel good, jerk.
It's like this... whenever I read one of these 'hard-boiled' crime type novels I can't help but read it in a James Cagney's voice... you see. This I believe was my first Jim Thompson novel and I really did enjoy it. Carl Bigelow aka Charlie 'Little' Bigger arrives in a small town to take care of business for 'The Man' and runs into a little problem with the dames. Having bad teeth, damaged eyes, wearing platform shoes and suffering from consumption doesn't seem to stop him from getting the dames either.Strange characters (including a hot dame with a baby foot), thrilling plot complete with twists, and an ending to die for... what more could you ask for?"Sure there's a hell..." I could hear him saying it now, now, as I lay here in bed with her breath in my face, and her body squashed against me... "It is the drab desert where the sun sheds neither warmth nor light and Habit force-feeds senile Desire. It is the place where mortal Want dwells with immortal Necessity, and the night becomes hideous with the groans of one and the ecstatic shrieks of the other. Yes, there is a hell, my boy, and you do not have to dig for it..."
What do You think about Savage Night (2014)?
Jim Thompson was the master of noir. "Savage Night" has all the hallmarks of great Thompson: an unreliable narrator, dark humor, twists and turns and there isn't a decent person in the book. In addition to this there's a lot of strange stuff going on that you don't normally find in Thompson. There's the section about the road trip with the writer and his farm full of screaming goats. You could even call some of this non-standard Thompson stuff borderline psychedelic. It's not his best offering nor is it his worst, but it's far better than most of the current mystery writing you'll find out there.
—Sean Owen
I'm not sure what to say about my first encounter with Thompson that isn't summed up by crime writer Anthony Boucher's review of Savage Night: "written with vigor and bite, but sheering off from realism into a peculiar surrealist ending of sheer Guignol horror. Odd that a mass-consumption paperback should contain the most experimental writing I've seen in a suspense novel of late."At times I'm reminded of no other writer so much as I am of William Burroughs (that great experimental repurposer of American pulp), as Thompson fills his first person narrative with hallucinations, dreams, and terrible visions without much to differentiate them from the outer "reality" of the novel. The last ten or so pages are a descent into utter unexpected madness so riveting, and writing so boundary-pushing, I immediately went back and read them a second time. If possible, it would be 4.5 or even 4.75 star novel. The only thing keeping the book from The Full 5 is the relentlessness of Thompson's bleak vision. The book is without any moments of levity, its characters without any grace, its world devoid of hope. Compelling, challenging reading, but lacking, at times, in fullness.
—John McDonald
A shadowy crime boss known as ‘The Man’ sends contract killer Carl Bigelow to a small town, on a mission to kill a man, by the name of Jake Winroy. Jake is a key witness in a forthcoming court case. Carl, whose ruse is that he has come to study at a language school, finds lodgings with Jake’s family, and takes a part-time job at a bakery.Matters start to go awry for the diminutive, doomed hit man, when he first arouses the suspicion of the town’s sheriff, and later goes on to have an affair with both Jake’s wife, and Fay, the disabled housekeeper. Events eventually culminate in an unpredictable end.Protagonist Carl is a paranoid, pensive and perplexing character, who suffers poor health, and is convinced that he is disintegrating - he often comments that there is not much of him left. Acutely aware of his weaknesses, Carl is attracted to ugliness, as he sees himself reflected in it.Savage Night is a suspenseful crime novel about a vulnerable narrator, who is both a victim and perpetrator, that explores the ugly side of the human condition. This is a nihilistic and violent book that utilises Jim Thompson’s trademark stark, pulp prose style.
—Guy Portman
