An underaged bellboy thrust into an awful intimacy with grownup vice. Analcoholic writer trying to postpone a crackup just long enough to finish hisnext book. A... » 

An underaged bellboy thrust into an awful intimacy with grownup vice. Analcoholic writer trying to postpone a crackup just long enough to finish hisnext book. A wildly dysfunctional Okie family floundering on the edge of mutualdestruction amid the deceptive plenty of wartime California. These are theingredients of Jim Thompsons devastating and eerily autobiographical firstnovel. In Now and On Earth Americas hardboiled Dante ushers readers into hisown personal hell and limns its suffering inhabitants with bleak humor andcompassion. With an introduction by Stephen King. «