I purchased this -brand new at the time- in 1989 but set it aside with my other Thompson novels.Alcoholic newspaperman/former combat veteran is up to his bloodshot eyeballs in mayhem, wiseguy-itry and right in line for fame-up for murder.Don't read any reviews where the frammis is given to you in a spoiler or two.This fast-mover of a novel is absolutely up there with , , or and is possibly even better.Great cast of characters, each one expertly drawn out. The dialogue is snappy. T...

Psychotically slapstick tale of an ace reporter who lost his private parts in the war, unfortunately the newshound is handsome as hell, so the ladies all chase after him like nobody’s business. What’s a hostile, castrated hunk to do but kill all the women? Best scene in the book is when the boss’ babytalking wife gets her fat ass handed to her by our dickless hero. Shortly after he throws up her nauseating dinner of frankfurters cooked in mayonnaise (dig the phallic symbolism). One of Thompson’s...

God, I love Jim Thompson. On a whim, I decided to reread some of my favorites. The Nothing Man is a blast. A poetry-writing newspaper man, fifths of whisky downed in a few hours, women who fall in love easily and quickly, and murder. What's not to love?

Classic nihilistic Thompson. Clinton Brown is work-a-holic, alcoholic, sociopathic wiseass, void of all emotion, and capable of fooling all of his small-town, lame brained coworkers into doing just about anything he wants. He drinks whiskey around the clock, uses his good looks to manipulate women, yet has no problem in resorting to extreme acts of violence when he feels that his cherished loneliness is in danger. When Clinton gets personally involved in the death of his former wife, a mystery u...

I said, "There's just one way you can help, Stuke. I—"       "Huh-uh," he said, firmly. "That's out, keed. I couldn't do it. I ain't goin' to. So forget it. You're goin' to snap out of it, Brownie. You're goin' to get your mind off of that—off of yourself, and start thinkin' about something else. That—it ain't everything. It—"       "Isn't it?" I said. "Isn't it rather easy for you to talk, Stuke?" "It'd be easier not to, keed. A hell of a lot easier."       "But you don't know! You don't know w...

Ok. That's my last Jim Thompson. Even if we have another one at the house I will not read it. It's the same dang story anyway. I'm not even going to put a spoiler alert here because if you've read one of them you need to know you have pretty much read them all. Or at least the one's I've read. The main character kills women. Then he uses his much greater intellect to confuse and trick the dumb people who are around him to believe that he could not possible have been the murderer. The only new th...

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,...

This novel surprised me. I had never heard of it before, having only come across it in a three-novel compilation that I picked up for three dollars in a used bookstore in Boston. About halfway through, it was starting to seem like the protagonist's murders were rather gratuitous, not unlike those which soured me on Thompson's revered The Killer Inside Me. But then the ending hits, and suddenly the book is not what it had seemed. Clifton Brown is indeed a nothing man, not really existing as his o...

My personal favorite Jim Thompson novel. Guy comes back from the war with a little secret wound that he will kill to keep secret. Loaded with a few first-hand insights into the life of an alcoholic newspaper reporter of the time. I think it is amazing that he got away with writing this back in the 1950s, when I believe screen kisses were still timed and limited to no more than 5 seconds!! This is simply good stuff. Read it, guys, you'll enjoy it.

The Nothing Man is a clever twist on a murder novel. In it we see the classic Thompson confrontation between the (A) existentially troubled, intellectually sophisticated (but impotent) Thompson character versus (B) the sly good ole boy and his old fashioned human corruption, and you can guess who ultimately wins.

I've read this book six or seven times, and it just keeps getting funnier every time.

"Where the hell do you get off drawing a pension anyway?”“It is puzzling,” I said, “isn’t it? Obviously I am not disabled for employment. Obviously I have suffered no disfigurement. I am even more handsome than on the day I was born, and my mother boasted—with considerable veracity, I believe—that I was the prettiest baby in town.” His eyes narrowed. “I get it. You’re a fairy, huh?”“Is that an assertion,” I said, “or merely a surmise?”“Don’t think I’m afraid of you, Brown!” “Aren’t you?” I said....

Surely Thompson's dark Freudian joke? All the usual murder noir elements in place - whisky, rain, nicotine and despair; crooked police and corrupt politicians, weak willed patsys and uber cool dames. With one cruel twist. Our anti hero is missing something vital. And is blessed with being unusually attractive to the ladies, which makes his lack of ability to satisfy that desire drive a murderous rage. The "nothing" leaves him twisted, alcoholic, and weirdly poetic - words being his only escape f...

You've never read a mystery novel like The Nothing Man, an upside-down, backwards, brilliantly structured bit of crime noir. The story begins as the protagonist's confession to three murders -- but is he really guilty? Or just so self-loathing, so consumed with hatred and rage over the unspecified but implicitly horrific war wound he's sustained, that he's talked himself into believing he's a monster? It's a black-hearted slog through the very worst of human nature -- which makes its quiet, stri...

Typically nutty Thompson novel. The protagonist is a compellingly sardonic writer who got his, um, parts, blown off in the war and is so consumed with shame that he'll do *anything* to keep it quite. Black humor and violence abound. It's not as sharp as Thompson's best; I've seen speculation that the publisher insisted on a twist ending that doesn't really fit with the rest of the book and it certainly feels that way.

Salud to Jim Thompson, second to none in suspense noir writing. An emasculated newspaper reporter murders his ex-wife...or does he? Turns out there are clues behind that don't jibe with what he did. And then he murders more to cover his tracks...or does he? Is the drink getting to him? Or is someone else covering his tracks, in a twisted effort to implicate him even more deeply? Good stuff.

I read someone's review here that this book is the same as every other Jim Thompson novel and she was done with him, but I disagree, and I also disagree that every Jim Thompson book is the same premise over and over again. In fact, I am pretty sure she didn't read this one to the end, as there is it doesn't finish as one might expect. It's not my favorite Thompson novel, but it is good.

First of all, Jim Thompson is one of my top 5 favorite authors. While The Nothing Man is not his best, it is a twisted, psychological tornado of a book with an incredibly smart, entertaining protag who drags you along on his gleeful journey. For me, Thompson's pulp is still fresh as it was in the 50's because he enters the mind of a small town psycho like no other writer.

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.

One of the first Jim Thompson books that I read, is also my favorite. The story keeps you riveted and constantly guessing, right up to the surprising end. Surely one of Thompson's crime fiction masterpieces.

Nihilism and toxic masculinity wrapped up in one of the most potent word packages Thompson ever produced. It's not the eternal nightmare of KILLER INSIDE ME or the formal experiment madness of HELL OF A WOMAN, but still among Big Jim's best.

Great film noir-style book that was hard to put down. Would make a brilliant film.

Not my usual cup of tea but the writing was fab and much more interesting than a standard noir. Oh the mind games! I genuinely didn't know how it was going to end. Quick read too.

Great vibe and atmosphere, crazy/dicey story. Not prime Jim Thompson, but it's still Jim Thompson.

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

I'm not going to go in to the specifics of the story since the summary at the top of this page is as good a preview as any. Instead, I'll just generalize so your reading of the novel won't be tainted by my opinions of every twist and turn. For instance...This one, like all of Jim Thompson's novels, takes place in a small town in hell populated entirely by murderers, thieves, psychopaths, sociopaths, cowards, con men, alcoholics, blackmailers, whores, crooked cops, crooked politicians, the extrem...

“How long could you live in a world where everyone knew you didn't have a pecker?” Ah that sunny fellow Jim Thompson, how he keeps me warm on my commute with his tales of male FUBARs going off the deep end. “Nothing” is the usual first rate man-fic which, even if it doesn’t reach the heights of “The Killer Inside Me” or “Pop.1280” is still larded with deliciously unpalatable truths about what happens when it all gets a bit much for your average homicidal maniac. The average homicidal maniac here...

Jim Thompson is rad as hell. The Nothing Man twists and turns on a darkly comic journey through male post-war anxiety and disillusionment. Which, in Thompson’s hands is both distressingly heavy and slapstickingly ludicrous. The literal emasculation anxiety and shame is deeply comical, and simultaneously a disturbingly poignant critique of white heterosexual masculinity—something that’s found new levels of disturbing relevance in the age of beta males, MRAs, incels and #metoo.The danger, naturall...

In Jim Thompson's, "The Nothing Man", a war veteran missing a certain characteristic works as a newspaperman and helps the police track down a murderer. The killer is, of course, our protagonist. Not unlike other Thompson novels featuring a sly killer as the lead character, it's a case of a newer type of person versus the older, the unpredictably mad new trauma-laden type versus the trust-me-I'm-an-old-timer, and that of a man with nothing to lose going up against someone with a hell of a lot to...

Clinton Brown is The Nothing Man. As a reporter for a small town newspaper, all he has is work and whiskey. As a wounded vet, he has no genitals. Only a powerful, poetic mind is at work. All intelligence with no appetitive attributes or desires.Brownie has an estranged wife who took up whoring when their marriage went south. She's back in town. When he strikes her on the head with a bottle and leaves her for dead after setting her place on fire, he's set the path for a series of murders that are...