Jim Thompson

Is Carl Bigelow a fresh-faced college kid looking for a room, or is he a poised hit man tracking down his victim? And if Carl is really two people, what about everyone around him? Savage Night is Thompson at his best, with plot reversals and nightmarish shifts of identity.

Savage Night

a lot (re: what i think of this book), but most interesting to me is that it is not typically included amongst his absolute best, which, imho, makes it his most underrated novel by far. the three ‘consensus’ best, ‘killer inside me,’ ‘hell of a woman,’ & ‘pop. 1280’ (an unofficial, for lack of a better description, ‘companion’ piece to ‘killer …’) have all been made into films, ranging from excellent (bertrand tavernier’s 1972 ‘coup de torchon,’ a french interpretation of ‘pop. 1280’ set in north africa) to so bad that thompson stopped eating upon viewing (burt kenedy’s 1976 ‘killer inside me’ starring stacy keach), eventually passing away just a few weeks later, w/ several other thompson books also receiving the movie treatment to very mixed results. point being, ‘savage night’ always came across to me (& i’ve read it many times) as, besides its inexplicably, imho, marginal status in thompson’s work, possibly the single most filmable of all his books for many reasons. to name just a few, thompson makes an unforgettable appearance in it himself, its surreality wildly exceeds anything else he ever published &, for one notorious for the gruesomeness of his endings, ‘savage night’ is one the three most horrific literary conclusions i’ve ever read, the other two being cormac mccarthy’s ‘outer dark’ & blaise cendrars’ ‘moravagine.’

not exactly a review but not exactly not neither….

james pryor marlowe

a lot (re: what i think of this book), but most interesting to me is that it is not typically included amongst his absolute best, which, imho, makes it his most underrated novel by far. the three ‘consensus’ best, ‘killer inside me,’ ‘hell of a woman,’ & ‘pop. 1280’ (an unofficial, for lack of a better description, ‘companion’ piece to ‘killer …’) have all been made into films, ranging from excellent (bertrand tavernier’s 1972 ‘coup de torchon,’ a french interpretation of ‘pop. 1280’ set in north africa) to so bad that thompson stopped eating upon viewing (burt kenedy’s 1976 ‘killer inside me’ starring stacy keach), eventually passing away just a few weeks later, w/ several other thompson books also receiving the movie treatment to very mixed results. point being, ‘savage night’ always came across to me (& i’ve read it many times) as, besides its inexplicably, imho, marginal status in thompson’s work, possibly the single most filmable of all his books for many reasons. to name just a few, thompson makes an unforgettable appearance in it himself, its surreality wildly exceeds anything else he ever published &, for one notorious for the gruesomeness of his endings, ‘savage night’ is one the three most horrific literary conclusions i’ve ever read, the other two being cormac mccarthy’s ‘outer dark’ & blaise cendrars’ ‘moravagine.’

not exactly a review but not exactly not neither….

Savage Night

Reviews