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Rating: 
Summary: certainly strange yet readable, but Thompson's done better..
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: No exit.
Review: The Nothing Man is an unusual and interesting novel narrated by the main character, Clinton Brown or Brownie. Brownie is a wounded war veteran who is glib, smooth talking 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.
There's a lot of flippant humor to be found throughout this tragic tale. But that's in keeping with Brownie's personality and he is, after all, the narrator.
I fully understand that The Nothing Man was written as a portrayal of a man's descent into madness and not as a realistic description of a crime spree. But still, the plot is too contrived to suit the very real emotional territory being explored. And that is the book's main flaw.
Nonetheless, I give it 4 stars because of Thompson's willingness to take on subject matter that 99.9% of other writers wouldn't go anywhere near.
Rating:
Summary: This Can't Be One Of Thompson's Best
Review: This extraordinairy piece of fiction stands as one of Thompson's best. The novel poses the timeless question: what makes a man? The central guy is a re-write man on a newspaper staff and surprise surprise an alcoholic. Murder runs rampant in the Nothing Man but with special twists. One of Thompson's great first person narratives, a character whose MO is based on an internal "two-way pull," and misanthropic rage. Don't miss the Nothing Man!
Rating:
Summary: Great Until the Ending
Review: This is the least convincing happy ending I've ever read, proving conclusively that Thompson had no aptitude for portraying happiness. Prior to that the book is great in Thompson's twisted sort of way. Clint Brown, like Lou Ford and other Thompson "heroes", is so bright and cynical that you can't help being simultaneously entertained and appalled by him.
Rating:
Summary: Great Until the Ending
Review: This is the least convincing happy ending I've ever read, proving conclusively that Thompson had no aptitude for portraying happiness. Prior to that the book is great in Thompson's twisted sort of way. Clint Brown, like Lou Ford and other Thompson "heroes", is so bright and cynical that you can't help being simultaneously entertained and appalled by him.
Rating:
Summary: Everything Expected Of Big Jim Thompson is in this one.
Review: This novel is correctly identified as a second-tier Thompson novel. Even so, it's one hell of a read. It's got everything one comes to expect from Big Jim. A dispicable, yet somehow endearing, likeable protagonist with a predilection for alcohol and women who bring out the worst in him. Thompson's descriptions of the binge drinking are excellent. Even if you've already read Thompson's "best" works, I suggest you give this one a try just for that. As in his other books, Thompson once again hits the nail right on the head when dealing with the profession of his lead character. This time around, it's a former army-man working at the Courier, a small town newspaper in Southern California. I caution the critical reader; you may find this a tad unoriginal of Thompson if you've read a lot of his other works!
Rating:
Summary: Everything Expected Of Big Jim Thompson is in this one.
Review: This novel is correctly identified as a second-tier Thompson novel. Even so, it's one hell of a read. It's got everything one comes to expect from Big Jim. A dispicable, yet somehow endearing, likeable protagonist with a predilection for alcohol and women who bring out the worst in him. Thompson's descriptions of the binge drinking are excellent. Even if you've already read Thompson's "best" works, I suggest you give this one a try just for that. As in his other books, Thompson once again hits the nail right on the head when dealing with the profession of his lead character. This time around, it's a former army-man working at the Courier, a small town newspaper in Southern California. I caution the critical reader; you may find this a tad unoriginal of Thompson if you've read a lot of his other works!
Rating: 
Summary: Hard-boiled hilarity
Review: 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.
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