I really enjoy Thompson, but. man, he can put you through the wringer. His protagonists are just so flat-out im- or at least amoral that the reading can be, well, uncomfortable. This book is no exception, with a war-wounded dissolute and embittered newspaperman, whose rage at the world is taken out on all those around him - ex-wife, colleagues, chief of police, etc. The characters are good, and even if not likeable are enjoyable. There's a real sense of place and period... it's a good, engaging, slightly idiosyncratic noir.

Thompson does a good job of keeping you just off balance - whenever you think you know on where it's all going to land up he just knocks you a different way.

This has some lighter moments compared with other Thompson novels, and in the end the misanthropy is somewhat, well, evened-up, so long as you don't take it too seriously. And in the end I think that's the one niggle I have - other Thompson novels seem serious, weighty. This one I had to take a little less seriously in order to enjoy it. ( )

This book is hilarious. Once you find out what the protagonist has lost in the war, you just... can't. I think the males of the species will have a different take on this. Lol ( )

the NOthing man. it's shakespeare. lear and hamlet have a lot in common with the drunken slob of an anti-hero in this novel.

a lot of walking and talking in this, as well.

i'd love to see a screenplay for this. ( )