A Hell of a Woman

Jim Thompson is the hardest of hard-boiled writers – a man for whom every narrator is an unreliable scumbag, for whom women are fatales or love interests, for whom people who have good intentions are suckers and the world is going to reflect out the worst of things. He’s also a hell of a writer, and one whose unreliable, self-justifying narrators are often the antagonists of their own novel, despite how they see themselves. (The Killer Inside Me and Pop. 1280 are the two best examples of this.) A Hell of a Woman is a fantastic example of this, giving us a door-to-door salesman who’s convinced himself that the world and everyone in it is against him – and that allows him to justify some reprehensible actions along the way.Like so many Thompson stories, it all starts with a woman – in this case, a young woman who “Dolly” Dillon meets when he’s trying to collect bills. She’s a woman in trouble, and Dillon keeps finding himself thinking about her and how to get her out – and if that means choosing her in favor of his wife, well, no great loss. Such is the kick off here, but one of the great things about Woman is the way that Thompson again and again undercuts his narrator, slowly peeling back the layers to help us see how rotten he is at the core, regardless of his protestations. And yet, we’re so immersed in his perspective that we understand why he’s making the choices that he’s making – we just get to see how he lives with them, too.Dillon isn’t as blatantly psychotic as the narrators of The Killer Inside Me or Pop. 1280, but he’s no less damaged or self-righteous, which gives the book the glorious tension of the best noir – where we’re torn between wanting to see our protagonist get away with it and also see him be punished for his vileness. I won’t get into which happens here, other than to say that Thompson has at least one blackly comic twist up his sleeve that’s legitimately funny, only to catch us off-guard with a surprisingly nightmarish and slightly experimental final chapter.That slight experiment reflects some of the oddness of Woman; between that and the occasional chapters where Dillon takes over the narrative and breaks the fourth wall to deliver his own memoirs, A Hell of a Woman sometimes feels like Thompson pushing the boundaries of hard-boiled noir to become more “literary,” and the results are a mixed bag. (I loved the surreal breakdown of the final chapter, for instance, but I’m not sure the “memoirs” added much.)Still, I’ve only read one Thompson book that didn’t work for me (Nothing More than Murder), and A Hell of a Woman is no exception. Dolly may be a little less dangerous than Thompson’s worst characters, but his whining and victimhood set him apart, especially as he spirals more and more. Add to that some black comedy that Thompson doesn’t always include and you’ve got another knockout from one of the truest hard-boiled writers who ever wrote.

This story might not be for everyone. It is very dark and disturbing. But, it will keep a reader's interest, I think.It is the story of a door to door salesman named Dillon, and how he gets involved with a troubled young woman with an evil aunt. The aunt has a BIG stash of money. One thing leads to another and several people, including the aunt and Dillon's wife, end up dead. Dillon's boss ends up arrested for a crime he did not commit, but there is poetic justice there. Dillon runs off with the young woman, but things turn out badly for her.The writing is very good - a reader can really feel like he/she is in the midst of the story. Very gritty, noire and all that. Some of the slang is a bit outdated and hard to follow - the book was written in the 1950's - but the context makes it understandable I thought. Dillon's mental state is "questionable" as the story progresses.In the original edition of the book, the last part was written as two columns side by side. One was the story as Dillon was seeing it, and the other was the story as actually happening. In this edition, they are mixed as alternating lines in regular type and italics in one column which makes things a little hard to follow. BUT, be patient and read slowly. The ending is rather shocking and surprising.Not recommended for the faint of heart as they used to say.

Although the plot is a bit clumsy and farfetched in places, this is still an excellent book. As usual with Thompson, he wastes no time getting the story started. Frank "Dolly" Dillon spies the woman who will will be his undoing in the first sentence of the book, and by the end of the first chapter, you know that these particular characters meeting under these particular circumstances are bound for trouble.Thompson is simply brilliant at conveying how character and circumstance combine to form destiny. And he does it in simple, straightforward language, with no wasted words, no precious metaphor or long-winded descriptions. He simply takes you by degrees down into hell, and by the time you realize where you're going, it's too late to turn back.Frank Dillon seems a pretty reasonable guy at first, and his more colorful comments come off as humorous. Over time, you begin to see his flaws and how they contribute to his undoing. One common element of all Thompson's novels is that the protagonist remains a largely sympathetic character, even when he starts doing horrible things. You understand his thinking and his weakness, even as you cringe at what he's doing.This one gets very dark at the end.

Dolly 'Frank' Dillon is one of life's losers. He has limited education, but a gift of gab. He has traveled the country doing door to door sales. He made money along the way, but blew it on liquor and women. Now he is trapped in a dead-end job, working for Pay-E-Zee stores at one of stores in Texas, making sales and collecting on delinquent accounts. He has a marriage he regrets, lives in a bad neighborhood, drives an older car (he stills owes money on), and has no future prospects.Then he stumbles into an opportunity. Ok, he may have to kill a few people, but it should be a big score. But things all go wrong. He has always been clumsy in his planning when doing anything shady, and a lot of things go awry - the story of his life.The story drifts at points between the real story, and the fantasy he lives in his mind. There are some interesting outcomes.Readers will find the origins of this novel in the author's autobiography, "Roughneck." The author did work in that type job for a short period of time.

Travelling salesman Frank “Dolly” Dillon thinks he knows all the angles but when he meets shy stunner Mona Farrell and her manipulative aunt then his scheming and dreaming suddenly start to go awry. With the small matter of a hidden stash of 100,000 dollars greed, lust and murder all conspire to drag Frank into his own personal hell, gradually losing his mind. As usual with Jim Thompson the delicate balance of life slowly starts to disintegrate as Frank realises that he’s just born to lose. A Hell of a Woman is another typical twisted crime novel from the one of those rare authors who turns pulp fiction into literary magic. Although for me not as powerful or spellbinding as The Killer Inside Me, this novel still manages to shock and impress like much of Jim Thompson’s dark crime work.

Great, sleazy and slightly Psychedelic towards the end, loved it.

Ein furchtbare Story, immer tiefer und unausweichlich geht es für den Protagonisten tiefer und tiefer in Schuld und Wahnsinn, und der Leser folgt widerstrebend aber zwanghaft,