There's a good line from an okay episode of The X-Files where Mulder finds out the small town sheriff in the case of the week has been carrying on numerous affairs with the town's women and says, "I gotta hand it to you, sheriff. You really put the service in 'Protect and serve.'"
So does Sheriff Nick Corey of Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280. He seems to have a big appetite in all senses. The meal he describes at the start of the book is staggering. Still, he's an unlikely casanova and would seem to be an unlikely murderer as well. Nevertheless...
This is the second Thompson I've read and it's an interesting compare/contrast with The Killer Inside Me. That was a somewhat claustrophobic thriller. Certainly it had moments of black humor, but it was primarily a nihilistic drama. Pop. 1280, though, is an all-out comedy, albeit one where the lead clown kills a bunch of people. I've laughed out loud at several points, mostly at variations on how Corey allows people to think he's slow and wimpy while craftily leading them to their doom. Anyway, it's great fun.
So does Sheriff Nick Corey of Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280. He seems to have a big appetite in all senses. The meal he describes at the start of the book is staggering. Still, he's an unlikely casanova and would seem to be an unlikely murderer as well. Nevertheless...
This is the second Thompson I've read and it's an interesting compare/contrast with The Killer Inside Me. That was a somewhat claustrophobic thriller. Certainly it had moments of black humor, but it was primarily a nihilistic drama. Pop. 1280, though, is an all-out comedy, albeit one where the lead clown kills a bunch of people. I've laughed out loud at several points, mostly at variations on how Corey allows people to think he's slow and wimpy while craftily leading them to their doom. Anyway, it's great fun.
2 comments:
from the cover of the first edition (on wikipedia): ‘1277 of the citizens were just plain folks - thieves, simpletons, cheats. it was those other 3 -myra, amy, and rose - who made pottsville the hottest town this side of the equator’
nick corey, the psychopathic good ol’ boy you just can’t help but love. glad to know i’m not the only one who, in spite of it all, laughed out loud a number of times. nick basically starts with the concept of ‘mischievous’, & takes it to places the likes of which one doesn’t encounter very often. very fortunately…
me, i’m still reading le carre, in particular ‘the honorable schoolboy’. it’s the middle book of what’s become known as the ‘karla trilogy’, with ’tinker, tailor, soldier, spy’ before it, & ‘smiley’s people’ after. besides reading both, we’ve enjoyed watching the alec guinness bbc versions of these last 2 multiple times, & i can only think that it was budgetary concerns that prevented them from including ‘schoolboy’ - much of the action takes place in hong kong & southeast asia (mid-70’s) - &, though smiley (back in london) has a sizeable role, the main protagonist is a field agent, jerry westerby…
i’m approaching the thrilling conclusion (well, it is!), & it’s both a very good book on its own (it was the first of le carre’s novels that he researched on site, &, at that point in time, doing so in that area, especially cambodia, took some sizeable cojones), & also forms a perfect bridge from ‘tinker tailor’ to ‘people’…
Because these are very short books I immediately followed up with A Hell of a Woman. The jacket copy on the Vintage Crime edition you sent me says, "It is a novel utterly devoid of sentiment, where a murderer goes about his deadly business without a prayer of redemption." It's a fine looking cover, but that doesn't really get close to how weird the plot is.
"Very fortunately" is right. It gradually becomes apparent that Corey is not only wilier than he lets on but also a lot more malign - perhaps because he feels justified in everything he does. Still, you have to appreciate the completeness of the thick hick act.
It's interesting that, as you say, there was an idea of Smiley being a retired spy in a mystery series, until Le Carre had the urge to un-retire him. As for the TV adaptation, Guinness was a great asset, albeit probably not a cheap one. In some ways it's too bad they didn't try to recreate Hong Kong on the Isle of Wight or someplace like that. The effect would be...different.
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