The Getaway

Rating:
Summary: Sympathy for the damned
Review: Jim Thompson's knack is to get me to feel sorry for the bad guy. Just like his other must reads, Pop. 1280 and The Killer Inside Me, I find my self rooting for the folks whom I find despicable in real life. I first read this about six years ago, and after I felt it was good but not as strong as Pop or Killer; now I rank it right up there with those classics. This quick read has one of the more intriguing endings, too.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best if not THEE best Jim Thompson novel
Review: One of the great things about this book is the hellish surreal touches Thompson uses throughout the book, all of which were totally omitted from Peckinpah's movie adaption.

The initial crime in the book was committed to get them to a heaven of high-living life of leisure. In actuality, the characters' personal hells, initially of a very real and frantic nature of running, is slowly replaced by a slow-paced hell of waiting.

I'm one of those people who tends to like film versions better than the book, and the movie was so pale and dull in comparison, that I almost turned it off. Unfortunately, I did watch it all. It is not classic noir. It's a trite 70's action flick. The new remake is from the same screenplay. This book has such great weird characters, bizarre settings, and strange psychological aspects none of which come across in the film. Forget both films, read the book, and make your own better film (in your head or otherwise).

Rating:
Summary: The Best of Thomson's Potboilers
Review: The best of Jim Thomson's paperback originals--the prose is clean, almost elegant (Thomson's attempts at literary experimentation are clumsy and pretentious, and his attempt at psychopathic cornball first-person are strained and affected--the first half of John Fowles' THE COLLECTOR is a million miles ahead of Thomson in this sort of thing). And the plot, about a cold-blooded bank robber and his wife scheming and counter-scheming with the accomplices in a messy bank robbery is lively and clever except for the last chapter, which reaches for the outrageous and only achieves the dubious (the ending devised for the film version is much better).

In short, a good crime novel--nothing more, nothing less. Thomson had some skill as a writer, but not as much as some would have you believe, and such talent as he possessed was never really stretched in a serious fashion. Ruth Rendell is a serious novelist disguised as a crime writer. Jim Thomson was not.

Rating:
Summary: One of the three greatest Thompson works.
Review: The book begins wth a bank robbery masterminded by the criminal genius Doc McCoy. The rest of the plot involves the desperate escape from the authorities. The best part of this book is the ending, in which everybody gets what they deserve.
Two movies have been made of this book. The most recent movie (starring the vile Alex Baldwin and Kim Basinger) was terrible. Do not let the movie prevent you from reading this book.
The best part - the ending- was left out of both movies to make the characters appear more noble . They are not noble. They are treacherous murderous theives. If your idea of a good time is to spend time with hard-boiled criminals with black hearts, then this is the book for you

Rating:
Summary: And another such victory
Review: The Getaway begins with a bank robbery that puts Doc McCoy and his wife Carol to running across country. This flight of theirs makes up most of the book and the pace is unrelenting. Along the way they jump trains, steal cars, hide underwater in two caves and in a hollowed out manure pile. Doc and his wife will kill anyone who gets in their way. They are trying to get down to Mexico where a man called El Rey has a criminal sanctuary lying in a small coastal group of mountains... El Rey's kingdom is no utopia however. There is nothing but the best to be had and it all cost plenty. When your money runs out so does your luck you are taken to a little village to starve to death. It is a place of cross and double cross as people try to make their money stretch further. It's a waking nightmare for Doc and Carol. The last line has confused many readers, it comes from a quote about the Alamo. Santa Anna, coldly gazing at the piles
of dead and wounded soldiers all about the Alamo mission, is said to have
casually dismissed the siege as "a small affair," Following this comment, a
senior commander is said to have replied....."And another such victory will
ruin us."

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: THE GETAWAY is one of my favorite Thompson novels. I think a lot of people may be familiar with the Peckinpah film based on this book starring Steve McQueen or the Alec Baldwin stinker also based on this novel. If you have seen those flicks, forget all about 'em.
This is the story of Doc McCoy and his wife Carol but it is not, as the films portrayed it, a love story of any kind. Doc and Carol don't trust each other at all. they're married, true enough, but they're also career criminals, and one betrayal is all it takes to wind up dead or back in prison.
This is a bleak novel, but Thompson's dark humor is also at it's best here, much like in POP. 1280 or THE KILLER INSIDE ME, two other must read classics.
At times you are keeping your fingers crossed for Doc, others you just might find yourself hoping that his old partner Rudy catches up with him once and for all. And, believe me, the rather bizarre ending to this novel is great, and I would be willing to bet that it gave folks like Barry Gifford and David Lynch a little inspirational push back when their talents were forming.
Ok. Go now. Read this book.

Rating:
Summary: on the road to nowhere...
Review: The Getaway is vintage Jim Thompson: a short, bleak story of 1950s down-and-outs, deadbeats and criminals. Much of his novels are heavy on punchy, "in your face" dialogue which would make fans of traditional fine literature cringe. It has a movie script feel about it which, for this reader, makes the story more intense.

In The Getaway we have a married pair of ex-cons making a getaway from a rather botched bank robbery. Neither person is pretty or especially likeable. Yet their desperate plight to make a getaway is fascinating ... and they go about matters in a very rough-handed fashion (cold-blooded murders abound). Yet in the end they come to the realization their getaway will not gain them any sense of happiness or closure. The ending (..no spoilers here) is most poignant. If our "Bonnie and Clyde wannabes" weren't such a heartless couple I'd almost feel sorry for them.

Bottom line: no, not Jim Thompson's best (which is The Killer Inside Me). But he was certainly on top form when he wrote The Getaway. Highly recommended.

(and no, I've never seen any film adaptation of The Getaway)

Rating:
Summary: on the road to nowhere...
Review: The Getaway is vintage Jim Thompson: a short, bleak story of 1950s down-and-outs, deadbeats and criminals. Much of his novels are heavy on punchy, "in your face" dialogue which would make fans of traditional fine literature cringe. It has a movie script feel about it which, for this reader, makes the story more intense.

In The Getaway we have a married pair of ex-cons making a getaway from a rather botched bank robbery. Neither person is pretty or especially likeable. Yet their desperate plight to make a getaway is fascinating ... and they go about matters in a very rough-handed fashion (cold-blooded murders abound). Yet in the end they come to the realization their getaway will not gain them any sense of happiness or closure. The ending (..no spoilers here) is most poignant. If our "Bonnie and Clyde wannabes" weren't such a heartless couple I'd almost feel sorry for them.

Bottom line: no, not Jim Thompson's best (which is The Killer Inside Me). But he was certainly on top form when he wrote The Getaway. Highly recommended.

(and no, I've never seen any film adaptation of The Getaway)

Rating:
Summary: on the road to nowhere...
Review: The Getaway is vintage Jim Thompson: a short, bleak story of 1950s down-and-outs, deadbeats and criminals. Much of his novels are heavy on punchy, "in your face" dialogue which would make fans of traditional fine literature cringe. It has a movie script feel about it which, for this reader, makes the story more intense.

In The Getaway we have a married pair of ex-cons making a getaway from a rather botched bank robbery. Neither person is pretty or especially likeable. Yet their desperate plight to make a getaway is fascinating ... and they go about matters in a very rough-handed fashion (cold-blooded murders abound). Yet in the end they come to the realization their getaway will not gain them any sense of happiness or closure. The ending (..no spoilers here) is most poignant. If our "Bonnie and Clyde wannabes" weren't such a heartless couple I'd almost feel sorry for them.

Bottom line: no, not Jim Thompson's best (which is The Killer Inside Me). But he was certainly on top form when he wrote The Getaway. Highly recommended.

(and no, I've never seen any film adaptation of The Getaway)

Rating:
Summary: Trust Nobody
Review: There are no heroes in The Getaway. As a matter of fact there is no-one who is remotely likable, trustworthy or who contains a shred of decency. It's about a group of criminals who are just as dangerous to their colleagues as they are to the innocent victims who cross their paths.

The story starts off with the well-planned and executed robbery of a bank. During and immediately after the heist the criminals' callous disregard for human life is displayed. These are ruthless, desperate and even deranged people. We then follow their getaway as they do their best to stay a step ahead of the law.

The main characters are the husband and wife team of Doc and Carol McCoy. Theirs is a tense relationship with Doc's ever-present menace thinly hidden by his outward calm demeanour. The tension in the relationship stems from the fact that Carol is well aware of what Doc is capable and doesn't quite trust him. He rules with a soft voice but backs up with a fist of iron which can hit with devastating suddenness.

I thought the ending was brilliantly ironic and packed with poetic justice. It's not one of those shock endings, rather it's a slow realisation that begins to dawn and then has the power to remain in the consciousness long after finishing the book. On the whole, this is a dark look at the underbelly of society told with a brutal frankness that sets the mood to perfection.