Thompson is a man who sees the world as a series of near misses. He views every moment in life as a step closer to a happiness and goodness that will, ultimately, be taken from you before it comes to fruition. The human condition, it seems to Thompson, is one in which we are always almost there, always getting close and some lucky few may pass the gates, but the rest of us will be chewed to bits by the great grinder.All of this probably comes back to his father who made and lost a fortune in the Texas oil boom, while he watched his peers get richer and more sinister. The good, in Thompson's experience, did not thrive. The vile thrived and the rest of us were left with the scraps from their table for which we were expected to be endlessly grateful.Not that his protagonists are moral milestones, of course. Sure, they have their code and live by it and there's some inherent value in that, but mostly, they just lack the power to do big things and, perhaps more importantly, they lack the moral blackness to ever amass any real wealth or power. Texas by the Tail is perhaps his purest vision of this world. In it, we find Thompson clearly drawing the line between those that are outside the law and those that make the laws and we are never given a moment to doubt which are the most reprehensible.You would be missing something if you didn't pay close attention to the direction the river runs in all this, though. It does not seem to be part of Thompson's vision that wealth makes a person immoral. Rather, it is that only the most monstrous specimens of humanity have what it truly takes to amass great wealth. And, ultimately, that difference makes all the difference.Thompson chooses to explore this idea in Texas by the Tail, through the lens of professional gambler, Mitch Corley. Mitch is a man with a code. Sure, he plays dice for a living, but he never uses violence and only gambles with those that can afford it. Unfortunately for him, that's just too much honor (even as little as it is) for him to make it cleanly through dark underbelly of Texas in the peak of the Oil Boom.At risk for Mitch is the love of his life ("Red") and the money they've squirreled away over the years toward their retirement. The villains of the piece include:- the wretched wife, who was spent their years together working secretly, as a whore and now proceeds to blackmail Mitch for even the money used to pay their son's school tuition.- a wealthy land family that has two reputations: (1) they've run much of Texas since the civil war, and (2) they take a malicious delight in destroying people emotionally and physically.- the ultimate oil tycoon, a man who wants for nothing but seems to pass his days looking for someone to shatter to bits, regardless of whether they deserve it or not.- a hapless banker, as corrupt as he is pathetic, who is so desirous of the approval of others that he will stoop to almost anything to get it.- a school headmaster who wants to kick Mitch's son out of the fine boarding school he attends on the grounds that the boy's mother is a prostitute.I won't go into details about who comes into play where and how it all comes together, but suffice to say that the central journey of the book is the journey by Mitch through the mud of his life and the characters that inhabit it so that he can emerge on the other side with a little nest egg that he and Red can use to live the life of their dreams.Don't get me wrong, Mitch is far from a saint. In fact, a large chunk of the problems in this book are, while directly brought on by sinister external forces, at least partially his fault. But even those are shaped by Thompson to be somehow understandable. A lie Mitch told long before the story starts is what begins the great downward spiral from which Mitch, in all his sincerity, is trying to escape. A poorly thought out plan based on greed and desperation sets another villain after him. But again, Thompson designs the story such that even the poor decision is based on desperation rather than any real sinister motive. The question, finally, that Thompson looks to answer here is whether any nominally decent man can carve out a little slice of happiness in a world owned and operated by sadistic people who have everything and want more. Always more.
Jim Thompson has an over the top quality that is one of the core values of his writing. Texas by the Tail is not an exemplar of that style. This is more in the vein of The Grifters, my personal favorite.Thompson is known for his punchy, no nonsense prose and his gritty take on humanity. But he can be perceptive in his pathos.So she wept, and he wept a little with her. Not for the idealized dreams of the past, but for the immutable realities of the present. Not for what had been lost but for what had never been. Not for what might have been but for what could never be. Thompson expended a great fraction of this novel on characterization down to the secondary characters. This is the strength of the novel. The story wobbles across Texas and ends when Thompson thought he had enough pages. Another stroke of Thompson's style.
What do You think about Texas By The Tail (2014)?
Hey Boden,Agreed, probably not the best place to start. This was one of Jim's last original novels (he adapted some screenplays later). Still a good read, though. I actually found a copy of the original paperback release from 1965 - hard to come by. Enjoy!I'm re-reading The Killer Inside Me, having just seen the movie version.Roger
—Boden Steiner
Jim Thompson, was a master of American Noir, stories of drifters, con men, hustlers, your basic asocial types. Mitch Corley is a typical character. Saddled with Teddy, a wife who wants lots of money to divorce him, he leaves for Texas in an attempt to win big at gambling at the expense of the rich. Unfortunately they don't like losing. Thompson also has a sense of humor. His description of the 1965 (presumably) Oklahoma City to Memphis train: "It has no diner. Its cars are of pre-World War I vintage, without air conditioning or other common comforts. Its schedule is presumably the product of a comic books writer. The many and prolonged delays are variously attributed to such causes as holdups by Jesse James, impromptu hunting and fishing parties for the crew, and funerals for passengers who have advanced into and died en route of old age." Mitch and his girlfriend, Red, settle in Texas, the only place where there's lots of money left for gambling (thanks to oil) and where Mitch hopes to make a big score. He has money stashed in a variety of safe deposit boxes -- a hustler needs a substantial stake, but Red likes to live high and his stash is running low. Another of the drain on his finances is his son, whom he has enrolled in an elite and expensive boarding school, there' and the money he sends his wife, partly out of guilt, partly because he doesn't want her to reveal to Red that he's still married. Red wants to get hitched. In a poker game with Walter Lord, he manages to win $30,000 only to learn that the checks Lord had been cashing through Mitch's friend, are not to be honored by Lord's family, who realize they are gambling debts. Mitch approaches Frank Downing for some help. Mitch demurs when Frank suggests he simply have Teddy killed, but Frank sends his goons to rough up Teddy anyway. (Lest you feel too sorry for Teddy, she's not a lovable character, for a variety of reasons.) In the meantime, needing the money, Mitch decides to drive to the Lord's huge ranch in an attempt to collect the $30,000. I would hate to reveal the ending, but will only suggest that it's quite satisfying after leaving the reader hanging (pun intended).
—Eric_W
