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    Pop. 1280
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    Pop. 1280
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    Pop. 1280
    Audiobook6 hours

    Pop. 1280

    Written by Jim Thompson

    Narrated by John McLain

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Nick Corey is a terrible sheriff on purpose. He doesn't solve problems, enforce rules or arrest criminals. He knows that nobody in tiny Potts County actually wants to follow the law and he is perfectly content lazing about, eating five meals a day, and sleeping with all the eligible women. Still, Nick has some very complex problems to deal with. Two local pimps have been sassing him, ruining his already tattered reputation. His girlfriend Rose is being terrorized by her husband. And then, there's his wife and her brother Lenny who won't stop troubling Nick's already stressed mind. Are they a little too close for a brother and a sister?

    With an election coming up, Nick needs to fix his problems and fast. Because the one thing Nick does know is that he will do anything to stay sheriff. Because, as it turns out, Sheriff Nick Corey is not nearly as dumb as he seems.

    In Pop. 1280, widely regarded as a classic of mid-20th century crime, Thompson offers up one of his best, in a tale of lust, murder, and betrayal in the Deep South that was the basis for the critically acclaimed French film Coup de Torchon.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateDec 25, 2011
    ISBN9781611137323
    Unavailable
    Pop. 1280
    Author

    Jim Thompson

    Jim Thompson is an internationally published firearms writer, photographer, and consultant with more than five decades of experience as a serious shooter and experimenter. He purchased his first M1 in 1963. His dedication to precise historical research combined with his practical, empirical insight has yielded significant contributions to the fields of military history and weapons development. He resides in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

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    Reviews for Pop. 1280

    4/5

    308 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A really fun book to read, assuming you're not too prudish. Imagine an old western movie, though this seems to be set in the rural South, then add a main character that acts like Gomer Pyle, has the sex appeal of a Clint Eastwood character, and who thinks like Peter Falk's Columbo, with all of it written in a style reminiscent of Twain's adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I'm anxious to watch Bertrand Tavernier's 1981 film remake, Coup de Torchon, even if it's setting has been moved to French West Africa.
    • 4/5
      I just live the way this guy write his stories they seem simple they often start out that way but sooner rather than later he twists and turns them around so that you stop guessing because you just know HE Mr Thompson is in total control and all you have to do to stay on course is keep turning the pages and yes, that's oh so easy to do.
    • 3/5
      Well written, easy to connect with setting and characters. My first foray into Jim Thompson. A few more on my shelf. These are quick reads that, for the most part, don't require much thinking to understand the story and characters, wher eit might be heading. Straightforward story-telling., almost with a made-for-TV feel to it (which I don't offer as a negative but more about the compactness of the story).
    • 5/5
      Can't say enough about this book! It's reminiscent of "A Man Without Qualities" but with more laughs and violence. Ultimately a picture of a man at odds with both himself and existence, torn between two identities and left without a soul. A brilliant work.
    • 5/5
      Nick Corey is the lazy and cowardly high sheriff of a little southern town. He believes that he's kept in office because the town likes that he doesn't get into anyone's business, even the crooks. It isn't until Nick starts seeing that he's expected to do his job or he'll be unemployed that he starts forming plans about the local pimps, the wife-beating husband of his mistress, the morals of his other mistress, the patronizing sheriff of the next county and the mean wife who tricked Nick into marrying her. Turns out that Nick wasn't stupid, he just needed to be motivated into action.Thompson was on fire when he wrote this one. Sheriff Nick is like Sheriff Lou Ford's lost brother and it's delightful to watch Nick praise the Lord after all his evil deeds.
    • 2/5
      Well, there are a couple different things I've read about this book.1. Reviews along the lines of "Nobody writes through the mind of a sick bastard like Jim Thompson."2. Reviews that say something about a dopey small-town sherriff who bumbles his way through things.I think I was expecting something like Confederacy of Dunces by Cormac McCarthy. But I was a little disappointed. If you're thinking about reading this book, give it until at least page 57. That's where the real tone of the book begins. The author takes you for a little bit of a ride, but that's about where you get on solid ground.Overall, the book set up an expectation that it didn't maintain throughout. The plot twists around quite a bit, but the twists were more quirky than dark or engaging.
    • 4/5
      A little too much like the Killer Inside Me. I'm not sure I really have the taste for Thompson's books, if these two are a representative example. They are clever in their depiction of the title characters malevolent manipulation of other people and of events to suit their own purposes - but they are so unremittingly dark without any sort of epiphany or memorable epigrams that you may find yourself wondering why you are spending your time with these characters. Outwardly dumb, inwardly Machiavellian, it is not easy for the reader to empathize with more than a little part of them. After a while, the fascination of watching the train wreck wears off. If you are after nihilism, dive right in. If you're looking for something a little more entertaining but still hardboiled, try Dan Marlowe or John D. McDonald's early non-Travis McGee books. The nearest modern equivalent is Joe Lansdale, who uses the same type of crude humor and unsophisticated story telling, but whose central characters are always sympathetic.
    • 2/5
      I don’t think Jim Thompson is my kind of author. I didn’t care for the broken English or the characters.
    • 3/5
      A dark Br'er Rabbit clone does restoration comedy in the American South. Fun read until it goes off the rails in the final dozen pages.
    • 3/5
      Psychopathic sheriff trapped in ennui and nihilism finds comfort in food and sex, becomes murder-instrument of God, and can't rid himself of his aw shucks grin. The inspiration of tv's beloved Andy Griffith Show.
    • 4/5
      Lately I’ve been in the mood for some pulp and noirish movies. Because of that I’ve just seen the movie “Coup de Torchon†(Clean Slate) by Bertrand Tavernier, which is loosely based on the book Pop.1280 by Jim Thomson. I just had to get my hands on the book… This is pulp fiction at its darkest. The story is dark, cynical and offensive, the last due in part to the time. The abrupt ending puzzles me though but still. There is humor within these pages to lighten up things. I laughed quite a bit at some of the antics in here. It’s the darkly hilarious, savagely painful, twisted-as-hell tale of one man’s psychotic journey into self-absorption and murder. Thompson does something you might not think possible, that maybe one of his psychotics isn't all bad, that maybe does do some good. As long as you don't become part of his plan, that is.

      It takes awhile for you to get your bearings, and only then do you know what you are really looking at. I was genuinely shocked at the depth lurking beneath Nick Corey and his story.
    • 5/5
      I've read one other Jim Thompson book, [book:Savage Night|19161892], and I was hard-pressed to believe that the same person wrote both. Savage Night didn't really appeal to me but I found Nick Corey, the small-town Texas sheriff in Pop. 1280 to be an absolute Machiavellian delight. Everybody may think he's a lazy, dimwitted good ole boy whose favorite line is "We'll, I'm not saying you're wrong but I'm not saying you're right either." Everybody would be wrong.I was intrigued to hear that Thompson's father was a Texas sheriff. I wonder how much of this story was drawn from real life.
    • 5/5
      4.5/5Una cittadina da 1280 abitanti, tutti con una doppia faccia: mariti che tradiscono le mogli e viceversa, eminenti esponenti della comunità che nascondono un odio per gli abitanti neri, cittadini dai segreti inconfessabili; però più di tutti una doppia faccia ce l'ha Nick Corey, sceriffo, da tutti ritenuto uno stupido fannullone, solo che, mentre vorrebbe continuare a non fare nulla, stupido non lo è affatto, anzi, è il miglior affabulatore della città.Nel romanzo Nick avrà diversi problemi di cui occuparsi tra cui una moglie cattiva e un paio di amanti da gestire, ma, trascinato dagli eventi e da quelle illuminazioni che gli indicano cosa è meglio fare, riuscirà a gestire praticamente ogni situazione.Nick non è un paladino della giustizia, per quanto comunque abbia una morale più solida degli altri cittadini, ma è un paladino di sé stesso, pronto a tutto per non perdere i propri privilegi e per migliorare le sue condizioni.Romanzo molto bello, alcuni personaggi hanno caratteri estremi, altri li potremmo incontrare anche oggi (perché la doppiezza è tipicamente umana), la caratterizzazione di Nick è fantastica nel suo dare indizi al lettore di come lo sceriffo sia in realtà.---A city of 1280 inhabitants, all double faced: husbands who cheat on their wives (and vice versa), outstanding citizens who barely hid their hate towards black people, citizens with unmentionable secrets. The one who is more ambiguous is the sheriff, Nick Corey, believed to be a stupid bum: he is the latter and he's willing to keep on doing nothing, however he is not stupid at all, in fact is the best deceiver in town.In the novel Nick has to face various problems, a mean wife and a couple of lovers, but he will be able to set things right thanks to his fortuitous enlightens.Nick is not a hero (despite his moral more solid than the other's), but he defends only himself and his privileges.The novel is really good, some characters are quite extreme, others can be found nowadays (duplicity typically human), Nick's characterization is wonderful and the reader discovers slowly how the sheriff really is.
    • 4/5
      High Sheriff Nick Corey acts like a simpleton, he doesn’t arrest anyone, he doesn’t stir the pot, he acts and behaves the exact way everyone wants him to act; well at least the way he thinks he should act. But this kind and gentle nature is just a cover from his sinister attitude. But has this side of Nick always been there, or was this just a result of always acting the way he thinks he should?

      The way Nick Corey acts, the lies and manipulating as scary; it’s like Jim Thompson is holding a mirror up to the reader and says ‘See, this is how you act’ (well maybe it was just for me). But with all the raging I was doing at Nick Corey, I almost missed just how brilliant this book really is.

      Jim Thompson is very experimental with his writing, and while he never really got the recognition he deserved when he was a live, his books are dark, gritty and always ringing an element of truth in it. No one has ever done characters quiet like Jim Thompson; characters that always hiding their true nature and acting the way people want them to act, while hiding the darkness. Fans of pulp novels will enjoy this book, but people looking for a light, easy read then this book will not do.