::READERS REVIEWS::

Dark stuff - Jim Thompson is a master at creating depression. He writes about characters who are battling personal demons and despair.

In this book, we look at a character who starts work at an aircraft factory and what got me was the authors portrayal of the cruelty of some people in the little things that they do to hurt others at the workplace.

The lead characters life is hell, his work is awful, the home life is dysfunctional at best and there does not seem any light at the end of the tunnel.

The book does get a bit confusing at times and you can see that it is Thompson's first book as it is a bit long-winded but it is worth a read.

Flashes of brilliance in Thompson's unusual debut - It's 1942 and Jim Dillon, 35, is a man on the verge of a crack-up, driven to drink and hounded to distraction by nothing more - or less - than the desperation of working-class family life. Forced out of a lucrative writing job with a literary foundation, he takes up an offer to drive a car out to California for some quick cash and the chance, perhaps, at a writing gig in Hollywood. But his wildly dysfunctional extended family insists on coming for the ride. The writing jobs fizzle and Jim's forced to take menial work in an aircraft factory ... Such is the setup for Thompson's first and generally least appreciated novel. It's quite different to his later crime classics and is probably of most interest to those wanting to explore the Thompson oeuvre in its completeness or probe his early writings for autobiographical resonances. Others will probably ignore it altogether, which is a shame. For between the extended episodes of semi-slapstick comedy and detailed descriptions of workplace drudgery, Thompson shoves his hand deep into the wound of communal poverty and pulls out some gems. Two scenes stand out: Dillon's recovery of his daughter Shannon from the drugstore in Chapter 11 wherein he wrestles with the fatherly angst of wanting-and-not-wanting this child (this episode also explains the intriguing title); and nine-year-old Jo's simulation of sex in Chapter 14, which is at once hilarious and heartbreaking for what it implies she has witnessed in the home. In these moments, Thompson's language becomes elevated without being pretentious. More than anything, it's devastatingly accurate, evoking precisely the kind of empathy such scenes require. Stephen King's introduction to this Vintage Crime / Black Lizard edition is just what you'd expect from King: sly, off-topic, a little superficial, but - as he says at the outset - it's an appreciation not a thesis, and his comments on Thompson are interesting nonetheless.

The first shall be last - This first novel probably would be long forgotten were it not for the subsequent noir genre classics penned by the great Jim Thompson. Fittingly, I managed to make it the last remaining work of Thompson's that I had left unread. This roman-a-clef is somewhat dated and of interest most to Thompson completists and scholars; fascinating background is found in Robert Polito's landmark "Savage Art", such as Woody Guthrie's involvement in promoting the novel. The book loosely tracks Thompson's early (but post-Oklahoma WPA communist-era) days as a nascent writer while subsisting as a San Diego aircraft factory worker beset by alcoholism. It is commendable that Black Lizard/Vintage brought this rare title back into print, but it deserves better than the generic throwaway introduction by Stephen King which has little to say about the book's context in the Thompson canon. (The King intro also incorrectly refers to the author as "Big Jim" Thompson, whom Polito states was Thompson's father). If despite the preceding caveats you decide to read this you also should get Thompson's second novel, "Heed the Thunder", to which most most of the same criticisms can be leveled. It is questionable whether either book really has survived the test of time to stand on its own feet absent the author's mythic/cult status. If you're just starting out on Thompson, read "The Killer Inside Me" and "The Getaway" and "Pop. 1280" and "After Dark, My Sweet." Excellent Thompson short stories, particularly the title piece, are found in "First This World, Then The Fireworks."

Discover this guy - This was Jim Thompson's first novel & it was a great start. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because I've read a couple of the others & they're better (if, for example, you read "The Killer Inside Me" I guarantee you'll want to read more of what Thompson wrote). Highly recommend reading Robert Polito's outstanding biography of Jim Thompson, "Savage Art," early on if you get even a teeny bit hooked on Thompson. Polito did a wonderful job putting everything in context, not just of Thompson's life but of the times in which he lived & the book is just a super companion to a serious reading of Thompson from which you'll learn much about, for example, how much of "Now and On Earth" is autobiographical. As for the novel, the descriptions of an aircraft manufacturing plant drag a bit at times but it's otherwise a wonderfully dark portrait of a struggling family and, in particular, a struggling young writer not unlike the author. Don't read the book expecting typical crime fiction because that's not at all what you get--it's not at all like Thompson classics such as "The Killer Inside Me." What you get here is really an extended vignette or character study (the plot is of minimal importance) & it's excellent.

A hard-boiled definition of desperation in wartime Cal. - Now and On Earth is a personal favorite of mine. While this book is'nt the typical noir fare, its not about committing crimes or stopping them, instead its about a dysfunctional family in wartime California. It's a wonderful read, with fully developed characters and situations, written in a gritty noir style. This book also has a well written introduction by Stephen King as well.