“Jim Thompson’s Cropper’s Cabin” by Jay A. Gertzman

NONFICTION: “There are three outstanding features of Thompson’s novel: (1) the Shakespearean intensity of love and hate depicted in closely bound men and women; (2) the simmering resentment, shame, and fear existing between Oklahomans and Native American descendants of the Five civilized Tribes; and (3) Thompson‘s and Caldwell’s versions of Southern Gothic melodrama.”

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“Dead at the Center: Enigmatic Noir Femmes and Psychopaths” by Ken Hall

NONFICTION: “Such characters differ in their affect from another class of noir figures, those who seem ‘dead at the center,’ displaying little or no genuine emotion as they proceed through the narrative. Perhaps these characters might be classified popularly as ‘psychopaths,’ although the definition of the term according to psychological theory and practice is complex….”

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