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Title: The Alcoholics
Review: Jim Thompson enjoyed a drink too much. He readily admitted this and his book The Alcoholics is his novel featuring his experiences in institutions where people dry out.The novel is very short (122 pages) and a quick read. It is not very enjoyable as the characterisation is limited and there are too many people one would want fleshed out more but the limited novel length prevents this.There are some adult themes in the book as well as coarse language that was not common in Thompson's works normally.I think that Thompson's main strength was the ability to create a storyline where the reader's imagination worked overtime on the horror of what he was writing about. This novel had a fair bit of that but as other reviewers have stated, was just missing that essential "something" that made it a quality read.
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