THE GRIFTERS by Jim Thompson

Refinished Su 12/1/19

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first completed on Sa 1/27/01, and I bought the book at the library book sale on Sa 1/13/01. And, according to the flyleaf , I finished the book after I saw 'THE PLEDGE' at the Showplace. I tried to get this film at Netflix, but it is no longer available. It was a film directed by Sean Penn and starred Jack Nicholson. 

The novel opens with a scene where Roy Dillon gets punched in the stomach with a bat after trying to run a 'short con'. He tried to pay for his drink at a soda counter with a twenty because he told the clerk he didn't have any change. The clerk gives him the change, and then Roy said, "Oh, I've got the change", and then tries to keep the change for the twenty and the twenty dollar bill.

Roy lives alone in a apartment in Los Angeles. He has a straight job and does the cons on the side.

Moira Langley is his girlfriend. She runs the 'long con' and this is revealed later in the novel. Moira wants a relationship with  Roy- both professional and romantic, but Roy doesn't want to commit.

Lilly Dillon is Roy's mother. She had Roy when she was very young and liked to refer to Roy as her younger brother. She was abusive to the boy when he was younger. When he would get punched in the arm she'd say, "Oh Roy, ya only got one arm".

She re-enters Roy's life after after Roy was clubbed in the stomach. Lilly calls a doctor and they learn that unless he is hospitalized, Roy could die.

When he's let go from the hospital, Lilly hires Carol to be a nurse for Roy. Lilly picks this nurse because she hopes that Roy will become romantically involved.

Carol is a holocaust survivor of Dachau. Roy falls hard for Carol, but they break up. He treats her like a prostitute and Carol is offended. She says that their night together should be worth a bout thirty dollars which 'is the going rate'.

Roy uses his love of Carol as a possible path back to a normal life.

Lilly collects money for a Baltimore base mobster, Bobo. She places bets at the local racetrack. She skims from Bobo and he catches her and burns the back of her hand very badly with a cigarette.


Moira tracks Lilly to Tuscon and murders Lilly and makes it appear to be a suicide. Roy is contacted by the police and flies to Tuscon and puts together that it's not his mother because she doesn't have the burn on the back of her hand.

Lilly returns to LA and stole Roy's stash of money that he had hidden behind four clown paintings on the wall of his apartment.

Roy comes into the apartment as Lilly is stuffing a bag with the money. As they talk Lilly swings the bag, it breaks open and showers the apartment with money, and a glass table is broken and one of the shards slices Roy in the neck and he is bleeding to death as Lilly leaves with the money.

A well written novel and all of the characters are terribly flawed.

Jim Thompson's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thompson_(writer)

The novel's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grifters_(novel)


In 1990 the film was made into a movie with Stephen Frears as the director. I've got it on top of my queue at Netflix and should get it by the end of the week.