::READERS REVIEWS::

Not His Best - I felt the same way about this book as Iazza did, but I'd add that the how in this whodunit--the deed around which much of the speculation takes place (I'm attempting here not to reveal details)--was hard to follow, and then, when revealed, hardly believable.

Heart secrets - In "Nothing Man', Jim Thompson invites a long walk with Clinton Brown but he forces the reader to look inside the reader's own mind. In startling murder after murder Author Thompson turns the reader into a long thread which he interweaves with the thread that is Clint "Brownie" Brown. i could not divorce myself from Clint Brown. There were times I wanted to hold Clint Brown close and comfort him yet felt the necessity of keeping one hand close to my concealed Charter Arms Pink Lady .38.

certainly strange yet readable, but Thompson's done better.. - Even after the opening few lines one senses 'The Nothing Man' is very much all-Thompson: desperate characters, lots of boozing, crackling dialogue, and a wee bit of murder. The chemistry is all there yet, for this reader, the story just didn't ignite ... despite the anticipation that any moment it would.

In our story we have junior hack working at a local newspaper who is really in bad shape. He's a boozer. His estranged wife is a tramp. And his mind is really twisted evidently because his, ahem, 'male member' got blown off by a landmine during the war. Very quickly he loses what little sanity he has and, in a "I can get away with anything" fashion, goes on a rampage. Enough said, but I will add that Jim Thompson has also thrown in a curious surprise in the final pages.


Bottom line: vintage Jim Thompson without the extra bite and cleverness of his better works.

No exit. - The Nothing Man gets a 4 star rating from me because in it, Jim Thompson takes on subject matter that 99% of writers wouldn't dare go anywhere near.
This very unusual novel is narrated by the main character, Clinton Brown or Brownie. Brownie is a wounded war veteran who is glib, exceedingly flippant and good at his job as a small town newspaperman. But Brownie carries with him a terrible secret. One which I won't divulge here. It's a secret so horrible to contemplate it causes him to drink nonstop and renders him fully capable of committing brutally violent acts to prevent others from learning what it is.
It's rather clear that The Nothing Man was written as a portrayal of one man's descent into madness and not as a realistic crime novel. Still, the plot is too contrived to suit the very real emotional territory being explored. And that is the book's main flaw.
Thompson wrote many books that outshine The Nothing Man, but relatively few of them can match its uninhibited daring.

Hard-boiled hilarity - This will surely draw some flak, but I prefer "The Nothing Man" to "The Killer Inside Me," the novel most people see as Thompson's best. "Killer" might be Thompson's literary masterpiece, but "Nothing" is more enjoyable as entertainment and more gripping as a crime novel.

In both cases, Thompson uses a first-person narrator who commits murder. In "Killer," sheriff's deputy Lou Ford speaks in cliches, a device that's quite effective for this novel and humorous, while in "Nothing," newsman Clinton Brown addresses the reader with wit and insight into the world around him, which makes for a much more engaging narrator than Ford could ever be. Of course, that last point is part of the effect Thompson wants with Ford: the man is dull and would be of no interest to anyone if he wasn't a murderer. Brown, on the other hand, is far from dull and is interesting as a person and not just as a murderer.

Brown's sense of humor is often bitter and usually vicious, and it suits him, his situation and "Nothing" perfectly. His description of a minor character and her fetish for mayonaise ranks, in terms of food-related humor, with Jack Nicholson's quest for toast in "Five Easy Pieces." Brown rarely lets slide an opportunity to give the needle to two other characters, his editor, Dave, and Pacific City's police chief, Lem Stukey.

Stuckey, in particular, but most of the other characters, as well, are extremely well-developed and stand on their own within the world in which "Nothing" takes place. Consider that the novel is narrated in the first person by a dyspeptic drunkard who practices frequent acts of cruelty against the people he knows, and yet Thompson still manages to draw his major characters from multiple angles. These characters and Pacific City could all be the major elements of another novel, with or without Brown, had Thompson ever wanted to revisit them or the place.

The murders have a wonderful feel to them. Brown doesn't have the hard-boiled coldness to dispatch his victims quickly or simply; he acts rashly and overheatedly twice and convinces himself he's a cool customer the third time. Bless him, too, he tries so hard to make himself look like a serial killer.

"Nothing" does have some flaws, including a tendency toward convenience and coincidence in some of the plotting, but it overcomes that on the strength of Brown's voice and how Thompson uses it to create a vivid depiction of Pacific City and its citizens.

Never read anything like this before. - If you're looking for a heart-warming crime novel, full of loveable characters to sympathize with, as they struggle with their plight--this isn't it. All of the characters in this work of noir are either completely rotten or just slightly rotten and stupid.

The protagonist is a heavy drinker who says what he thinks and does whatever he feels like, including murder. In the beginning he doesn't care about anyone, including himself. The possibility of his own death doesn't even bother him, until shortly after the murder. At which time, he decides he'd rather continue on--so he needs to pin the murder on some one dumb enough to consider him a friend.

This is the strangest crime novel I've ever read. The dialogue is biting and mean, yet often hilarious. The characters are stretched to the limits of plausibility, but the plot never got so far off the wall that I suspended disbelief. Most enjoyable was the current of dark humor that flows throughout the entire novel. It kept me reading.

This is my first Jim Thompson novel, and now I will go off hungrily searching for more.

Never read anything like this before. - If you're looking for a heart-warming crime novel, full of loveable characters to sympathize with, as they struggle with their plight--this isn't it. All of the characters in this work of noir are either completely rotten or just slightly rotten and stupid.

The protagonist is a heavy drinker who says what he thinks and does whatever he feels like, including murder. In the beginning he doesn't care about anyone, including himself. The possibility of his own death doesn't even bother him, until shortly after the murder. At which time, he decides he'd rather continue on--so he needs to pin the murder on some one dumb enough to consider him a friend.

This is the strangest crime novel I've ever read. The dialogue is biting and mean, yet often hilarious. The characters are stretched to the limits of plausibility, but the plot never got so far off the wall that I suspended disbelief. Most enjoyable was the current of dark humor that flows throughout the entire novel. It kept me reading.

This is my first Jim Thompson novel, and now I will be searching for more.