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The Grifters (Crime Masterworks)
by Jim Thompson
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Orion mass market paperback (2003-10-16)
ISBN: 075285206X
EAN: 9780752852065
Dewy Decimal #: 813
Paperback: 192 pages
SKU: M8714
Condition: Very Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Roy DIllon seems too handsome and well-mannered to be a professional con man. Lilly Dillon looks too young--and loves Roy a little too intensely--to be taken for his mother. Moira Langtry is getting too old to keep on living off the kindness of male strangers. And Carol Roberg seems too innocent to be acquainted with suffering.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Crisp and Real
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-10-31
Author Jim Thompson (1906-77) catches the flavor of grifting with this crisp tale set in Los Angeles in the late 1950's. The main character is Roy Dillon, a young salesman and short-con operator a bit too soft for this line - he nearly dies from a beating when caught short-changing a cashier. Actually, Roy is merely a babe compared to his older-and-wiser girlfriend Moira Langtry and gun-toting mother Lilly. Moira emerges as a manipulative long-con artist seeking a new partner, while Lilly is a still-attractive toughie who places large bets for the mob at racetracks. Each character works their angles, seeks to manipulate, and conceals a few things too. The story has compelling friction between the characters including some sexual tension between Roy and his mother. This is be pulp fiction, but a gripping read.
This book is worth a look, as is the nicely-cast 1990 movie starring John Cusack (Roy), Annette Benning (Moira) and Angelica Huston (Lilly).
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Excellent noir, excellent movie
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-05-12
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I can still remember the stark scenes in the 1990 movie starring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston and Annette Benning. Donald Westlake wrote the sharp script. Roy Dillon is a low-level conman in L.A. His mother Lilly, her youthful looks still preserved, is also a grifter. She has mixed feelings on Roy as a a player in the illicit business. Moira, Roy's girlfriend, tries to bring him in her big con. There was more tension between Moira and Lilly in the movie. Recommended for noir fans, THE GRIFTERS is a brisk read (2 hours) and the plot straightforward. The prose style is smoother than Thompson's earlier books.
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A dark story
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-07-01
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is an easy read but filled with lots of twists and turns. Jim Thompson lives up to his reputation as the successor to Dashiell Hammett. I recommend the story to all who enjoy a story with gritty characters and matching dialogue. Then watch the movie, starring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston and Annette Benning, for a faithful visualization of this excellent book.
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Good Dialogue, But Still a Bit Dry
Rating  (3)
Date: 2005-12-19
0 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
I expected this book to be a breeze, because noir often moves quickly, and there were about one-hundred-and-twenty pages of reading, but I had to force myself to sit through it, especially when I realized that the pages were running out and a climax was nowhere in sight.
While the dialogue between the characters was hilarious, the rest of the book was a little tepid. The build-up never actually led anywhere, and some characters, it seemed, had no purpose whatsoever than to fill a few pages.
I think that with better plot construction, The Grifters would've been a real gem. As is, however, it's not at all brilliant (and not wholly bad, either). If you want to be mildly amused for an hour, pick it up.
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Pulp Fiction
Rating (4)
Date: 2005-04-10
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
A good easy read from one of the stars of 60's pulp fiction. As with many of the novels of this period that have been made into films, it is difficult not to think about the movie while reading (a fine film starring John Cusack and Angelica Huston - for extra credit see the two stars together having lunch with Peter Gallagher in Robert Altman's The Player). I enjoyed all of the seedy details of living on the grift and thought how the lives of Roy and Lilly caught up with them was well structured and although not surprising, done in a manner which did not take away from the suspense. A must read for fans of dark, 60's fiction.
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