I was thinking novel that I previously read was a Jim Thompson novel but looking over his bibliography I can’t find it.
It was written in the 1950s and is set in a relatively small town. Told in the first person, it is about an alcoholic newspaper journalist who lost his wedding tackle during the war. He ends up murdering his ex wife and maybe some other people. But he is also an unreliable narrator and maybe he didn’t kill them after all. But he seems to believe that he did. (Kind of like American Psycho. Sorry if I just spoiled that for you.)
A memorable paragraph was one where he has realized he hasn’t eaten anything for too long and so he cracks about five eggs into a glass, fills it the rest of the way up with whiskey and then drinks it.
Yup, Jim Thompson’s The Nothing Man, from 1954. Here’s the description from Goodreads:
"War changed Clinton Brown. Permanently disfigured by a tragic military accident, he’s struggling to find satisfaction from life as a rewrite man for Pacific City’s Courier. Shame has led him to isolate himself from closest friends and even his estranged, still faithfully devoted wife, Ellen. Only the bottle keeps him company.
But now Ellen has returned to Pacific City, and she’s ready to do whatever it takes to get Brown back. Even if it means exposing his deepest secret … a painful truth Brown would do anything to stop from coming to light. He’d kill a whole lot of people just to keep this one thing quiet–and soon enough, the bodies just happen to start piling up around him…"
Well thanks. The Jim Thompson book lists that I had seen previously must have been incomplete. For instance, his wikipedia page lists only “major works” and doesn’t include Nothing Man.
Been wanting to read it again but couldn’t remember the title.