Summary
There are traces of dark humor in a number of Jim Thompson’s novels, but in Pop. 1280, the classic noir writer plunges directly into the comedy implicit in the corruption and violence that mark his fiction. In this book, the humor comes from Nick Corey, sheriff of Potts County, and his interaction with the seedy, deceitful world that he oversees. The whole purpose of the plot in Pop. 1280 is to move Nick from one dark, slapstick moment to the next, leaving readers to decide if the point is to make fun of Nick’s sexual escapades, the various women who indulge him, or human sexuality in general. The same is true for the corruption and the violence: is it Nick’s casual “I’ve played dumb for so long I’ve stopped playing” act that is the joke? Or are readers themselves being made fun of for enjoying accounts of staged rape, pimp killing, slander, gossip, and yet another of Thompson’s small-town carnivals of immorality? Whatever the answer, many critics have found the novel compelling, and it remains one of Thompson’s most popular works.
Extended Summary
Pop. 1280 opens on a note of irony. Sheriff Nick Corey, the top lawman in Potts County, is upset that he cannot sleep and eat, even though he does sleep eight or nine hours a night and manages to eat more than six pork chops, some eggs, grits, and gravy all at one sitting.
He gets dressed, but on his way out to consult his friend Ken Lacy about a problem, Nick catches sight of his wife, Myra, who is still in bed. Nick becomes sexually excited, but she treats his desire with contempt, calling him stupid and reminding him that they had to get married because he raped her. She threatens to reveal this fact, and he counters with the suggestion that if he were out of work, Myra and her “half-witted brother” would have nowhere to go.
On the train to Ken’s town, Nick runs into an old girlfriend, Amy Mason, whom he has not spoken to since he broke up with her. He tries to explain, but Amy turns a cold shoulder.
Once he arrives, Nick gawks at Ken’s town because it is so much larger than Pottsville. He then goes to see Ken and explain his problem: the Pottsville pimps have been talking back to Nick when he tries to keep them in line. Ken advises that it is not enough to use word to put them in their place, and he drives this point home by kicking Nick in the buttocks. Ken even suggests that Nick kill the pimps. Ken’s deputy, Buck, then walks Nick back to the train station.
When he returns to Pottsville, Nick confronts the pimps. The two men sneer at him, and Nick shoots them dead. After a peaceful night of sleep, Nick is awakened by his wife, followed by Ken Lacey, who is concerned that Nick killed the pimps. Nick denies that he would do any such thing, and puts Ken up in the town’s whorehouse for the night. The next day, Nick walks Ken back to the train and gets him drunk. He then manipulates Ken into talking about how Ken himself might have taught the pimps a lesson. Ken also suggests that Myra’s mentally handicapped brother may not really be her brother but someone she keeps around for sexual purposes.
On his way back from the train station, Nick encounters Tom Hauck beating Uncle John, an older black man. Rather than having a direct confrontation, Nick manages to distract Tom long enough...
(This entire section contains 1095 words.)
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for Uncle John to slip away. Afterward, though, county attorney Robert Lee Jefferson says Nick should have arrested Tom and warns Nick that in the upcoming election for sheriff, Sam Gaddis is likely to beat him. Nick says that he will have to do some “hard” campaigning, which means that he will attempt to manipulate the townspeople by denying that he believes any of the dirty stories circulating about Sam.
Nick leaves Robert Lee Jefferson and goes to see Tom Hauck, who is hunting. Nick shoots Tom and then visits the Hauck farm to make love to Tom’s wife, Rose, who has been his lover for a while now. As they are about to make love, Rose takes a call from Myra, who shares some of the nasty stories about Gaddis that have arisen in response to Nick’s denials. Nick goes home, and the next morning, Rose calls to go through the motions of reporting Tom missing. Myra is concerned for her friend and suggests that Nick get her a gun for protection.
Nick spends the day with Rose. After they again make love, Rose finds Tom’s dead body on the porch. Rose sees a wagon pulling away, and she runs after it naked. Nick follows, also naked. It is Uncle John, who found Tom’s body and brought it home, fearing he would be blamed for Tom’s death. Nick cajoles Uncle John into helping him haul Tom back into the woods, then kills John and stages the scene to make it look like the two men shot each other. The next day, Henry Clay Fanning finds the bodies and insists on a reward so long and rudely that the county attorney hits him in the mouth.
When Nick later sees Rose, she tells him that there had been insurance on Tom, so they have money to run away. Nick stalls her by saying it would look suspicious to leave so soon. Nick leaves Rose with Myra, for appearance’s sake, and then goes to make love to Amy. When he suggests they run away together, Amy reveals that she saw him shoot the pimps. While they are talking about what to do next, Nick sees flames through the window: the African-American section of town has been set on fire. He helps fight the fire and then talks with the major citizens of the town. When they push for causes, Nick mentions seeing someone sneaking out of a house, which distracts them all with their own guilt.
That Saturday, when folks are in town for shopping, Nick does some campaigning for the upcoming election. On Sunday, Sam Gaddis is doing the same, and just as he is about to give a speech, Nick blindsides him by denying all of the malicious stories that have been circulating. Sam tries to respond, but the crowd dissolves into a mob. Sunday night, when Nick is at home trying to rest, a private detective shows up and says that he knows Ken Lacey killed the pimps. Inexplicably, Nick lies to and confuses the detective by saying that he saw the pimps alive after Ken went home.
To resolve his romantic tangle, Nick lets Lennie catch him kissing Rose. The couple then fills the retarded man’s head with malicious statements that he will take back to Myra. Myra arrives at Rose’s house a bit later with a camera to take incriminating pictures. When Myra tries to force Rose to let Lennie take her clothes off, Rose ends up shooting and killing both Myra and Lennie. Rose then accuses Nick of having set everything up, and he nudges her to take the train out of town.
The next morning, after church, Ken Lacey’s deputy, Buck, shows up. He is mad at Nick for not finishing the frame on Ken, but Nick calms him down and feeds him stories and half-baked philosophy about how the human race is terrible and no one knows what they are doing. On that pessimistic and somewhat sinister note, the story ends.
