Old and Cold

by Jim Nisbet

So goes the logic at the heart of Old and Cold, leading to a spree of hits that are sometimes perfectly executed, sometimes messy, set against the backdrop of San Francisco's beaches, bars, and murky darkened streets. told at breakneck speed in a bravura voice, this novel is Jim Nisbet's finest work yet, reminiscent of Jim Thompson at his best and Tarantino at his most irreverent. a tough and tender love letter to a city's underbelly, this is a shockingly funny tale of suspense that won't let you go.

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2011

About the author

San Francisco writer Jim Nisbet has published eleven novels, including the acclaimed Lethal Injection. He has also published five volumes of poetry. His novel, Dark Companion, was shorted-listed for the 2006 Hammett Prize. Various of his works have been translated into French, German, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Greek, Russian and Romanian.

Aside from reading and performing his own work for some forty-five years, Nisbet has written and seen produced a modest handful of one-act plays and monologues, including Valentine, Note from Earth, WonderEndz™ SmackVision™ and Alas, Poor Yorick, and himself directed the original productions of most of these works.

Reviews

[Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to Follow


In the past 2-3 years I have started this novel at least twice before finally getting my mental phonograph needle to track the groove.

Schizophrenic alcoholic down & outer who lives under a San Francisco bridge freelances as a hit man in order to maintain his martini binges.

This "homeless" drunk tends to avoid personal grooming and physical maintenance because the odors emitting from his proximity help to prevent close scrutiny by the square johns and cops alike.
Helps him retain his "cover", so to speak.

In between assignments his dual personalities debate each other, engaging in continuous philosophical, political, and sociological discourses.

Jim Nisbet is a niche artist/writer.
He's not for everyone.
If you have ever tried to read William S. Burroughs but gave up after a dozen pages or so, then this book is not for you.

I loved this novel.
It took me about 20 pages or more to get my sea legs but once I became accustomed to the wave and the sway of the writing it became an enjoyable read.

As I always like to add in any of my reviews: your mileage may -and probably will- vary.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is all a schizophrenic stream-of-consciousness from the POV of an alcoholic homeless guy living on social security and doing "under the table" work as a hitman to support his Martini habit. This is part Joyce and Burroughs and Lowry of Under the Volcano, but all Nisbet. So, yes, it is an impressive retro of modernism's flirtation with language before a "post" took it all away. Hard going, but so much fun if you love language. Read it once through just experiencing the words and then a second time to figure out what was going on. Stunning writing. Nisbet is way under-appreciated.

[Florita]

OMG...what a fricken word-salad writer. I could not get the concept of this damn book. Taking it back. Boring.

[Douglas Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m no connoisseur, but I enjoy me some strange literary fiction from time to time. Though scouting for such books can be tough, hunters should focus on the native habitats: small presses, undiscovered authors, and Palahniuk Chuck, to name a few, as all these tend to cook up imaginative, off kilter stories. Nisbet, who has been short listed for the Pushcart and the Hammett, presents about as whacked out a book as you can get and still be readable. The unnamed main character, a 63 year old street dude, is admirably, deeply drawn. A massively intelligent and probable schizophrenic who lives under a bridge, spouts French, algebraically calculates when social security will catch up to him, and uses words like temerarious. It’s a choppy, but poetic, read because Unnamed speaks just like my missus: in big fat, run-on gibberish. “Pseudo-senility this ain’t. All too aware. Dementia in reverse. The floridity of your vegetative process. Confusion as regards sedulity.” Feels Beat, right? Just when readers might despair that this is an incoherent mess, Nisbet sets a powerful hook by having his nameless character accept $5,000 in an envelope. Turns out he’s a hit man who literally measures hits in martinis. Push through the first 20 pages; your reward is a rollicking, if unclean-feeling, experience.

Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nisbet is an amazing writer, and in this book he flexes his literary muscles in the kind of experimental seemingly stream of consciousness prose that recalls Jim Thompson at his best and most deranged. If some writers are word drunk Nisbet is frequently word shitfaced, and he's a real poet in crime fiction clothing. Don't expect a lot of plot, but if you can get into the demented internal life of the narrator (an alcoholic schizophrenic killer) the book is indeed rewarding.

I didn't give this five stars because I didn't feel this was quite at the level of the jaw-droppingly great Lethal Injection and Dark Companion, both of which are among the very best crime novels I'll ever read.

[Tim Hennessy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Half way through this book, I stopped. A novel with a schizophrenic homeless guy with an unquenchable thirst for martinis who is given five grand to kill someone sounded like an appealing entry point into the work of Jim Nisbet, but I guess I was wrong. My main issue with the novel was the stream of conscious rambling narration that while impressive in it's ambition failed to make this book anything but a tedious effort to continue reading. Maybe it's me, maybe things get better further in. I've got more Nisbet books to try, and I look forward to reading them.

[Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

all in all, jim nisbet is just a kickass novelist, poet, artist, and cabinet maker.
old and cold follows a homeless martiniaholic in his days and nights just trying to enjoy his retirement on social security, living under a bridge and supplementing his income by murdering people. has really good algebra equations built in to the story, and treaties on how to make a good martini, and how stupid sports is, or at least people who talk about sports.

has http://noirconeville.com/jarchive.html

[Justin Howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stream of consciousness novel about a paranoid schizophrenic alcoholic who's homeless on the streets of San Francisco, calculating the price of martinis, and killing people for money. There's no redemption, no will he or won't he defeat his demons (well, there's a little bit of that, but only little). The whole book's entirely about being cooped up in this guy's head as he kills people for money.

Certainly not for everyone, but a good read for adventurous readers.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a crazy read. Schizophrenic homeless assassin in San Francisco who loves martinis. I'd have probably given this only three stars but for the impressive idea and writing of Nisbet, having the ongoing dialogue and arguing of the two voices in the main character's head. Often hilarious, sometimes frustrating, it had me questioning my own sanity at times. Way different from anything I've ever read.