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A Swell-Looking Babe Audiobook
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(3.02) - 648 listener ratings
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It was supposed to be only a temporary job -- something to pay the bills until Dusty could get his feet back on the ground and raise enough money for medical school. After all, there's nothing wrong with being a bellboy at a respectable hotel like the Manton -- that is, until she came along.
Marcia Hillis. The perfect woman. Beautiful. Experienced. Older and wiser. The only woman to ever measure up to that other her -- the one whose painful rejection Dusty can't quite put from his mind.
But while Dusty has designs on Marcia, Marcia has an agenda of her own. One that threatens to pull the Manton inside-out, use Dusty up for all he's worth and leave him reeling and on the run, the whole world at his heels.
A richly-imagined crime narrative of the Oedipal and betrayal, A Swell-Looking Babe is Thompson at his very best -- a cornerstone in Thompson's enduring legacy as the Dimestore Dostoyevsky of American fiction.
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"very creepy, with the unreliable narrator & the glimpses of utmost depravity, but after about a third of the way in as said narrators mental equilibrium cracks and falls to pieces, it aquires a can't look away quality. not his best book but still the best crime writer ever."
— Grant (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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The best suspense writer going, bar none.
— The New York Times -
My favorite crime novelist-often imitated but never duplicated.
— Stephen King -
If Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich would have joined together in some ungodly union and produced a literary offspring, Jim Thompson would be it...His work...casts a dazzling light on the human condition.
— Washington Post -
Like Clint Eastwood's pictures it's the stuff for rednecks, truckers, failures, psychopaths and professors ... one of the finest American writers and the most frightening, [Thompson] is on best terms with the devil. Read Jim Thompson and take a tour of hell.
— The New Republic -
The master of the American groin-kick novel.
— Vanity Fair -
The most hard-boiled of all the American writers of crime fiction.
— Chicago Tribune
A Swell-Looking Babe Listener Reviews
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" My least favorite Jim Thompson novel. "
— Kris, 2/6/2014 -
" Made me feel icky and miserable, like a good crime novel should. "
— Thomas, 2/3/2014 -
" 2-1/2 stars for a book I was not overwhelmed by, but the pages of this short noir novel raced by quickly enough. Thompson's prose, at least in this particular book which is the first by him that I've read, didn't resonate as powerfully as say Raymond Chandler or Walter Mosley or Chester Himes. But he did a fine job putting the reader into the confused mind of a lead character trying to figure out the constantly shifting whirlwind going on around him, and slowly revealing the young man's true character and motivations. "
— Roy, 1/26/2014 -
" LOVE JIm Thomson. His dialog can't be matched. And the way he gets inside his characters. Any of his books are great. Most famous: The Killer Inside Me. Highly recommend that! "
— Gordon, 1/15/2014 -
" Blackmail and murder. What more could a crime-book reader want? "
— Phillip, 1/15/2014 -
" I would rank this amongst my favorites of Jim Thompson's works. Really well put together story. "
— Mister, 1/11/2014 -
" Well, this book IS what Thompson is known for - very dark and very grim. The last 40 or so pages is a pure anxiety-ridden, white knuckle ride. Briskly paced and hard boiled from start to finish. "
— Stephen, 1/8/2014 -
" The Manton looks like a respectable hotel. Dusty Rhodes looks like a selfless young man working as a bellhop. And the woman in 1004 looks like an angel. But sometimes looks can kill, as Jim Thompson demonstrates in this vision of the crime novel as gothic. "
— Eddy, 12/14/2013 -
" I really liked this at the start, but as the main character's mental health declined, so did my interest. It seemed like all the characters are pretty feeble minded, and not very likable. Kind of made it hard for me to care about them. "
— Donald, 12/3/2013 -
" They don't even eat their eggs scrambled in this one; that's how hard-boiled it is. "
— Ian, 10/17/2013 -
" dark spirals of badness - great! "
— Tom, 9/20/2013 -
" oddly conventional, still good though. as always with Thompson, the ending is a kick in the lunch-bucket. "
— Rob, 8/15/2013 -
" This book is likely inspired by Thompson's tenure as a concierge at the Hotel Texas which is now the Hilton in downtown Fort Worth. "
— Aaron, 6/2/2013 -
" Good, not great story about a guy working the night shift at a hotel who gets roped into a plan to swindle money and yes, a woman is involved. Great style. Good ending. "
— Chas, 4/7/2013 -
" 3.5,really. Gotta love Jim Thompson! "
— Amy, 2/17/2013 -
" Pretty good, kind of a letdown after the Getaway, though. As always, a quick fun read though. Makes me wish I lived in a simpler era where the expensive rooms at the classiest hotel is $15 a night. "
— Alex, 8/30/2012 -
" Some nutty goings on in a hotel told from the perspective of a bellboy (not Jerry Lewis). There's cliche-type gangsters in there, too. Most of the action takes place indoors - Thompson should have turned this into a play! "
— Andy, 7/14/2012 -
" A short but excellent read. "
— Sheldon, 6/9/2012 -
" I am a fan of Thompson, but this one is a little sloppy. "
— BoBandy, 11/27/2011
About Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson (1906–1977) was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He began writing fiction at a very young age, selling his first story to True Detective when he was only fourteen. He eventually wrote twenty-nine novels, all but three of which were published as paperback originals, and two screenplays, for the Stanley Kubrick films The Killing and Paths of Glory. An outstanding crime writer, he created a world of fiction rife with violence and corruption. In examining the underbelly of human experience and American society in particular, he was both philosophical and experimental. Several of his novels have been filmed by American and French directors, resulting in classic noir such as The Killer inside Me, After Dark My Sweet, and The Grifters.
About Brian Troxell
Brian Troxell is an audiobook narrator and Atlanta-based actor and voice talent who can be seen and heard on television, film, radio, podcasts, and the live stage. He is a regular cast member of the Sketchworks sketch comedy troupe and performs regularly with the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. He can also be heard as a cast member of the Harry Strange Radio Drama.