Maybe C McCarthy has taken over my mental Texas landscape, but Thompson comes off as thin. I need to check out 'The Killer Inside Me' or whatever is considered to be "The Thompson" to read, because my experiments so far have me thinking he's rather weak. Even within the genre, James Ellroy or Elmore Leonard write circles around this guy. Maybe that's unfair because Thompson came first. Maybe it's also unfair having read the bio 'Savage Art', because whenever things start breaking down with the obvious plot twists and thin characters, I picture an Oklahoma born miserable drunk pecking away at just a few more keys between sips. And believe me, I have no issue with drunken writers. But Bukowski, Chandler, Hemingway - they all keep me more engaged/entertained.I appreciate what Thompson is trying to portray, but the sadism just comes off as crass bullying, the chauvanism never backed up by anything. You'd really have to hunt to find more implausible or despised female characters. It's as if he has no real love for ANY of his own characters, good bad or otherwise. Philip Dick or J G Ballard, for example, might use paper thin characters at times to unroll their plots...but they somehow get the job done better than this.When my mind walks onto "Thompson's set", usually within the first act I want yell "This is unrealistic AND dull. You're all fired, go home! And get the f-ing writer dried out again!" And yet there were enough substantial passages here and there that pulled me in enough to get the second star...
I've been slowly crawling through Thompson's bibliography over the past few years, so I'm getting a good idea of how the quality of his work could fluctuate. Unfortunately, The Trangressors might be his most disposable, forgettable book next to The Alcoholics—but at least the latter has the distinction of being a comedy. That isn't to say The Transgressors is completely awful, though; it's just incredibly rote for Thompson. Protagonist Lou Ford returns from the Killer Inside Me, here disguised as "Tom Lord" to avoid conflicts with a possible film adaptation of that novel (which wouldn't be made until 2009). But none of the meaningfulness of TKIM can be found in The Transgressors, which originally existed in failed screenplay format before a post-rehab Thompson salvaged it for the sake of a new book. And it reads like salvage, too, though it's refreshing to know this novel didn't spell the complete end of Thompson—he'd go on to write my favorite of his novels, Pop. 1280, just a few years later.
What do You think about The Transgressors (2014)?
You don't usually give 5 stars it must be very good (from your perspective!). You didn't like Infinite Jest? I have been eyeing it up nervously on my bookshelf here for a couple of years, even in paperback a doorstep of a book. Worth the time & trouble, not? In your opinion? The man himself intrigues me...
—notgettingenough
This is the third novel by Thompson that I've read, and one that I must conclude was written during his decline. Most of the plot elements feel like a hodge-podge of The Killer Inside Me and The Getaway. While both those novels had moments where the scale shifted, where certain observations and statements brought in a larger, if still very dark perspective, this one felt cramped and suffocating in its sordidness. Plot developments seemed to happen more or less at random and while some of the supporting characters are depicted in s great deal of detail, it feels like padding rather than insight. This was a sad example of how badly a talent can unravel, but I'm determined to continue sifting through Thompson's work for the good stuff.
—Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
Definitely not one of his better novels. The first half is great, as it focuses on the different threads that make up the Highland Corporation, but the second half is such a slog; I was so tired of the romance between Tom and Donna. Just wasn't convincing. It's telling that I was more interested in the inter-novel linkage that Joyce Lakewood's murder added (and I realize she's Joyce Lakeland in 'The Killer Inside Me') than the actual implications of her death in this novel. Sub-par Thompson overall, but there are a few exquisite passages.
—Kevin Kern
