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Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Detail and Research
Review: I didn't think it was possible to write a full-scale biography of Thompson because of his scattered, secret life. But Polito has pulled off the seemingly impossible. He gathers together unexpected facts from obscure sources in places all over the country. He combines this with excellent, insightful analysis of this tortured writer's work. When I first read Thompson's novels back in the mid-'80's, it felt like my brain was being turned inside out. I was so astonished I went out and bought every one. Now thanks to Polito we can begin to understand the sources of the horror and the humanity of his novels.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Detail and Research
Review: I didn't think it was possible to write a full-scale biography of Thompson because of his scattered, secret life. But Polito has pulled off the seemingly impossible. He gathers together unexpected facts from obscure sources in places all over the country. He combines this with excellent, insightful analysis of this tortured writer's work. When I first read Thompson's novels back in the mid-'80's, it felt like my brain was being turned inside out. I was so astonished I went out and bought every one. Now thanks to Polito we can begin to understand the sources of the horror and the humanity of his novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious but Complete
Review: I suppose when an author pens a biography of another author, the reader should not expect the biography to provide the same level of reader delight as the author whom the biography covers. Don't get me wrong, Polito does a good job, and he certainly is not a hack writer. His analysis is steady without flights of fancy about Thompson's motives, but it's not too interesting either. Yes, Thompson lived a tought life in Texas and Oklahoma as his flitty father bounced from one dream deal to another, and his time spent in the Texas oil rig jungle is informative not only about Thompson but about the times and condiitons where he lived. Bringing in excerpts from Thompson's writings to explain (or perhaps just to connect the dots) events in his life with parallels in his writings doesn't always work. Yes, the reader can see his father in life and in the person of a corrupt official in one of Thompson's novels, but one can never see the genius--the why. This award-winning book certainly deserves any awards based on the good scholarship Polito brings to the effort. The details, though, sometimes bog the reader down in minutiae that seem to detract from who Thompson was. One of the more interestings periods of Thompson's life was while working with the WPA as a writer working on the Oklahoma Guide. The connections with the writers and the communist and socialist, including Thompson, even Thompson's activitist role in the WWW is rendered in such detail that the reader wonders why Polito brings in all the detail -- which seems almost like the minutes of a party meeting -- that he does. However, whether intentionally or not, Polito puts the lie to the contention that mystery writers are right-wing apologists for capitalism. Thompson (and perhaps even more so Lous L'Amour who was part of Thompson's group of writers who were involved in Oklahoma's communist party) were not just hacks churning out pulp fiction for the he-man magazines but were men of conscience who were well aware of the plight of the working man during this era in this time and place. The fact that Thompson gave up the party doesn't detract (or indict) from his deep feelings for injustices he experienced in his life and saw in others. All in all, Polito's work represents excellent scholarship, and in reading this book, you will come away with a close rendering of Jim Thompson's life. However, while well documented and certainly with a pedestrian scholarship, I never felt that Polito found the source of Thomson's real genius.
Rating:
Summary: Tedious but Complete
Review: I suppose when an author pens a biography of another author, the reader should not expect the biography to provide the same level of reader delight as the author whom the biography covers. Don't get me wrong, Polito does a good job, and he certainly is not a hack writer. His analysis is steady without flights of fancy about Thompson's motives, but it's not too interesting either. Yes, Thompson lived a tought life in Texas and Oklahoma as his flitty father bounced from one dream deal to another, and his time spent in the Texas oil rig jungle is informative not only about Thompson but about the times and condiitons where he lived. Bringing in excerpts from Thompson's writings to explain (or perhaps just to connect the dots) events in his life with parallels in his writings doesn't always work. Yes, the reader can see his father in life and in the person of a corrupt official in one of Thompson's novels, but one can never see the genius--the why. This award-winning book certainly deserves any awards based on the good scholarship Polito brings to the effort. The details, though, sometimes bog the reader down in minutiae that seem to detract from who Thompson was. One of the more interestings periods of Thompson's life was while working with the WPA as a writer working on the Oklahoma Guide. The connections with the writers and the communist and socialist, including Thompson, even Thompson's activitist role in the WWW is rendered in such detail that the reader wonders why Polito brings in all the detail -- which seems almost like the minutes of a party meeting -- that he does. However, whether intentionally or not, Polito puts the lie to the contention that mystery writers are right-wing apologists for capitalism. Thompson (and perhaps even more so Lous L'Amour who was part of Thompson's group of writers who were involved in Oklahoma's communist party) were not just hacks churning out pulp fiction for the he-man magazines but were men of conscience who were well aware of the plight of the working man during this era in this time and place. The fact that Thompson gave up the party doesn't detract (or indict) from his deep feelings for injustices he experienced in his life and saw in others. All in all, Polito's work represents excellent scholarship, and in reading this book, you will come away with a close rendering of Jim Thompson's life. However, while well documented and certainly with a pedestrian scholarship, I never felt that Polito found the source of Thomson's real genius.
Rating:
Summary: The Definitive Bio on Thompson
Review: If there was ever an American original, it's Jim Thompson. His dark and deranged world-view, expressed in a series of cheap paperbacks in the fifties and sixties, revels in the that part of the American psyche that we ignore and are afraid to look at. Polito's detailed bio explains where Thompson came from, and the events that molded him into the premier writer of American noir. Even if you aren't interested in Thompson and his work, this is an exquisite biography.
Rating:
Summary: The Definitive Bio on Thompson
Review: If there was ever an American original, it's Jim Thompson. His dark and deranged world-view, expressed in a series of cheap paperbacks in the fifties and sixties, revels in the that part of the American psyche that we ignore and are afraid to look at. Polito's detailed bio explains where Thompson came from, and the events that molded him into the premier writer of American noir. Even if you aren't interested in Thompson and his work, this is an exquisite biography.
Rating:
Summary: Worth every penny
Review: My only complaint about this honest and thorough bio is that Thompson was a lazy crybaby. His writing was inconsistent, as was his character. I loved every minute of this great life story.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, illuminating, meticulously researched.
Review: Savage Art is a truly remarkable work of scholarship. In it, Robert Polito meticulously separates out fact from the considerable amount of mythology that surrounds Jim Thompson's life.
Since so much of what Thompson wrote is autobiographical in origin, a knowledge of Thompson's very unusual life history helps the reader better appreciate his work. So it is not at all hard to argue that this is not only a well written and fascinating biography, it is an important one as well.
Polito explains, in exacting detail, how Thompson's life and consequently his writing was influenced by the interpersonal and societal forces he encountered as he matured.
To put it another way. Jim Thompson's worldview was shaped, nurtured and, some would say, warped by his life experiences.
He then took this unique worldview and used it to interpret the self same experiences which formed it. The result is Thompson's very significant contribution to 20th century American fiction. Dark, disturbing books inhabited by sad, desperate characters trapped in hideous circumstances. These are novels that boldly explore areas that would otherwise be unexplorable.
Savage Art is very much a monumental achievement. Essential reading for Jim Thompson fans.
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