His characters begin alienated and severed, much like the lost souls dispossessed during the Great Depression and often spiral off into a kind of psychosis patterned on society at large. Just like the stories he uncovered, Jim Thompson was rooted in the proletariat's lot, the blood, sweat and dirt of people he felt to be the salt of the earth - although his books showed them to be more like vipers in a pit.
David Geffner
excerpt from
Soul of a Writer
2009
Jim Thompson (far right)
Oklahoma circa 1930s
WPA Federal Writers Project
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2009/novemberdecember/feature/soul-writer
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