Book Review : Jim Thompson - Pop. 1280 (1964)

Order POP.1280 here

''Aw, now, Robert Lee. You don't really mean that, do you?''

''He looked at his desk, hesitating for a moment. ''Well, maybe not. But there are other charges you could have got him on. Being drunk in a public place, for example. Or hunting out of season. Or wife-beating. Or uh-''

''But Robert Lee,'' I said. ''Everyone does those things. Alot of people anyways.''

If you have never experienced a Jim Thompson novel in your life, you're missing out. It's like spending the night with your crazy, reckless cousin, in his beat up oldsmobile with a 24-case of beer swinging on the backseat. It's uncomfortable, unpredictable and sometimes downright terrifying, but you know that if you make it through, you'll have the most insane memories of it. POP. 1280 is often talked about as a pale reflection of Thompson's most famous novel THE KILLER INSIDE ME, due to the similarities between the protagonists. I haven't read the latter, but POP. 1280 stands out on its own as one wild thing that happened in the history of literature.

Nick Corey is the sheriff of a small county. Everybody thinks he's an idiot and chaos reigns all around him. Nick kind of talks like an idiot. His wife is a bitter harpy that has no respect for him. But Nick handles business his own way and it involves having people thinking he's an idiot. It allows him the freedom to do whatever he damn pleases, because nobody thinks he's capable of doing anything right. When actual idiots are trying to make their law on Nick's territory, things start to get heated and Nick is forced into action. Words don't translate who he is at all, yet action does. The frightening gap between who Nick Corey presents himself to be and who he actually is makes POP. 1280 an unforgettable experience.

POP. 1280 is narrated in a soft, deliberately confused, southern twang. Nick Corey is depicting absurd domestic scene between him and his wife. It's how he presents himself: harmless, vulnerable and pleasant. The only way the reader escapes Nick Corey's suffocating control is through events he didn't pre-engineer. Crimes he didn't authorize and other people's emotions he doesn't have dominion over. POP. 1280 is a savantly-written novel. Jim Thompson's mastery of language is displayed in POP. 1280 better than any other of his novels I have previously read, because it is built around careful control over one's language and the deceitful nature of perception. Sure, Jim Thompson keeps it wild and fun, but the message is pretty deep: never judge a man by his words.

''I'm really going to start cracking down. Anyone that breaks a law from now on is goin' to have to deal with me. Providing, o' course, that he's either colored or some poor white trash that can't pay his poll tax.''

''That's a pretty cynical statement, Nick!''

''Cynical?'' I said. ''Aw, now, Robert Lee. What for have I got to be cynical about?''

POP. 1280 stands out in Jim Thompson's career because it's not plot-driven at all. Language-driven crime novels are a rare thing and good ones that don't fall in the masturbatory-writing-exercise category are even more rare and precious. POP. 1280 should also be remembered as one of the most terrifying case-study of sociopathy in fiction. Nick Corey is such a gifted liar, he embraces the dimwit character he created until he pulls the trigger on somebody. Jim Thompson displays the real vulnerability of his protagonist through his self-justification mechanisms and through his efforts to subjugate others to who he thinks they should be. Nick Corey is a sociopathic genius, but his vision of the world is rigid. If you're not aware of who he truly is, you're going to live in his own personal hell.

Reading Jim Thompson is always a very enjoyable experience, yet POP. 1280 had a special flavour to itself. It is a unique object, both wildly entertaining in its content and surprisingly deep in its purpose. I'm not sure how different it is from THE KILLER INSIDE ME, but it's greatly different from the Jim Thompson novels I have previously read. There isn't much of anything like it, really. I would qualify it of being a crime fiction UFO, if that makes sense? In a genre that is ridden with clichés, writers like Jim Thompson are an inspiration to generations of young writers. He takes clichés, blows them up with dynamite and creates something unique out of it. POP. 1280 might be his most peculiar and original effort.

BADASS