Elmore Leonard passed away last month, and I heard a lot of interesting stories about him on the radio. (oh dear, NPR has not been a good source of picks in the past)
Many of his works were adapted to cinema or tv, including Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, 3:10 to Yuma, Out of Sight, and Justified.
I chose this book because it had one of the highest average ratings on Goodreads. Bring on the blackmail!
8 comments:
Picked up the book yesterday. Already halfway through it. Enjoying it a lot. Hard to put down. Kind of book any post I make could be a spoiler. The main character's wife is named Barbara and a friend calls her Barb. Maybe that has something to do with me liking this book :-)
Finished reading the book. Really good book. Hard to put down. Story moved right along. Reminded me of gangster movies I have seen - harsh reality scenes. Stuff that made me say "it's only a book.. it's only a story".
Reading this book after Anna Karenina, I felt like a swimmer surfacing from a long underwater stretch; I sucked in the words and chapters as if gulping air, lungs heaving. I loved it! I will read more of Elmore Leonard; it’s easy to see why his novels have been turned into movies so successfully. I like an author who can write great characters and lots of action. I agree with B though, some of the scenes were brutal and I didn’t like reading them.
Although I can’t say I would have reacted the same way as Barbara did to the situations presented to her, I felt like she had a great strength within; Harry is lucky to have her! And how about Harry? Nerves of steel, that one.
Favorite lines are both from chapter 10:
“Ross usually made his move during the after dinner drinks. …he would lean in close and say, quietly .. ‘Sweetheart, you wouldn’t want to go someplace and screw, would you?’ … Ross was successful because he was a good salesman and never afraid to ask for the order.”
“ ‘An expensive neighborhood bar,’ Barbara said. ‘Someone was telling me that hookers come in here now, pros. How to they compete with all the amateurs?’ ”
I got a little chuckle every time the baddies wrote off good luck to “clean livin” and “good karma.”
The car theft/destruction reminded me a little bit of Stefanie Plum and Lula.
** Spoiler alert**
Part of me really enjoyed this book because it moved fast, had great characters, and some wonderful lines. The other part of me disliked how quickly the violence against women was written off: Cini's death, Doreen's death, Barbara's sexual assault. Was all this really necessary for the plot? I know, I know, this is the feminist in my emerging and maybe I wouldn't be so quick to criticize if it was written by a woman rather than a man. But, it was written by a man. It starts out with an affair that is quickly forgiven by Barbara when he comes crawling back (I find that hard to believe), continues with his girlfriend being killed and, we are led to suspect, assaulted post-mortem, simply for money, with Barbara being repeatedly drugged and assaulted, and Doreen being first suffocated for what she might know and later shot for being in the area. I find this all very disturbing. In relation to this, the men, even those killed, are treated much better. So, I'm torn.
I have a number of spots marked to comment on, but must leave my office to teach in just a few minutes, so may not get to all of them in this post.
I did like the strength of character in Mitch, Barbara, and Cini. In Chapter 3, Cini tells off Ross and his ski area (BTW: I can't stand Ross's character- what a schmuck) and I had to laugh out loud.
Also, Ch. 3: By Mitch- "I'll tell you a funny thing though. I've been married twenty-two years. All of a sudden I fall in love with a young, really nice, good-looking girl. But you want to know something, Jim? Barbara's better in bed." Ha!
Chapter 4: By Peggy- "Newspaper reporter, he's got a dirty mind, wants you to say dirty things he can't write in the paper anyway." The stuff those girls must have dealt with!
Chapter 6: By Ross- "Mitch, they don't want to know about things like that. [women, about affairs] They want everything to be nice. Don't rock the boat." Do you agree with this? I think women don't want their husbands to have affairs, but I certainly would want to know.
Oops, have to go teach. THe rest later.
Okay, to finish up (now that I've put in my time teaching unenthusiastic students about civil rights).
Ch. 10: Barb's response to Ross trying to seduce her. "Barb, I'll make love to you like you'e never had it before" [I think Leonard says this on Big Bang Theory when trying to have cybersex, but I digress.] "How do you know?" "I promise." "Really, why do you think you'd be better than Mitch?" I LOVED IT. Especially when she asks him specifically what he has in mind. ;-)
And, finally, Ch. 12: After imagining himself shooting the kidnappers, "Picturing had nothing to do with doing it." How true. Isn't this the whole point of fantasies? We picture things we wouldn't do.
I was a bit surprised at the abruptness of the ending. No wrap-up or anything.
Years ago I read the book "The Godfather". The characters in this book reminded me very much of that book. The saving grace of this story is that not all of the characters were gangsters whose consciences no longer existed.
Definitely a fast read with great characters and a lot of action.
Like M, I didn't like how the women were treated at all. They seemed to take the brunt of it all until the very end when the men were finally killed off.
I do like characters that use their brains rather than their brawn. And Harry was one of those. He figured out how to work the situation without involving too many other people and didn't turn to violence until he was forced to.
I would've liked to know how the union thing worked out and know that Ed Jazik got his just rewards.
I highlighted some of the same comments with this one added:
Chapter 15 Alan: "I'll do a time-and-motion study on the man" talking about Harry Mitchell. Now that is a true accountant!
And I always think how today's technology (specifically cell phones) would have made this story different.
Definitely a fast read with great characters and a lot of action.
Like M, I didn't like how the women were treated at all. They seemed to take the brunt of it all until the very end when the men were finally killed off.
I do like characters that use their brains rather than their brawn. And Harry was one of those. He figured out how to work the situation without involving too many other people and didn't turn to violence until he was forced to.
I would've liked to know how the union thing worked out and know that Ed Jazik got his just rewards.
I highlighted some of the same comments with this one added:
Chapter 15 Alan: "I'll do a time-and-motion study on the man" talking about Harry Mitchell. Now that is a true accountant!
And I always think how today's technology (specifically cell phones) would have made this story different.
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