Bad Boy (Autobiography)
by Jim Thompson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jim ThompsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-09-30
ISBN: 0375700307
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Bad Boy (Autobiography)
Book Review: Disappointing.
Summary: 3 Stars
Written by pulpmaster Jim Thompson, Bad Boy is a collection of autobiographical vignettes that focus on his early life. As other reviewers have pointed out, many of these stories contain obvious exaggerations and embellishments. Poetic license, if you will.The first 25% of the book, the part that deals with his early childhood, is just plain bad. Reading it is like watching The Little Rascals. Which is to say it gets old very quickly. If the entire book were like this, it would only rate one or two stars.
However, Bad Boy becomes somewhat more interesting as Thompson reaches his teen years and begins to try his hand at different part time jobs, learning important lessons along the way. Especially engaging is his account of hotel life from a bellhop's perspective. And later, as he describes his experience as an itinerant oil field worker in West Texas, we are treated to glimpses of good insightful writing.
Overall, this book is a disappointment. Not surprisingly, the few good parts are almost always found where Thompson tells it like it is, or rather like it was. The places where he forgoes the embellishments and plays it straight. After all, though fiction is often best when it sounds like fact, the reverse is seldom the case.
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