I'm reading Shame the Devil by Pelecanos. The robbers have a
change of car ready after the job and two more cars waiting
in a garage. This seems like peperation for a big score like
a bank job and not a robbery of a pizza joint. It just
doesn't fit at all to me. This is my first Pelecanos and I
must say I am disappointed so far. The book is fast paced at
first but then slows down in endless getting to know
different characters. The characterization is poor with
cardboard people that seem like characters in a book, they
just don't come alive. Sometimes less is more and something a
character says or does can let you see that character for
what they are better than fact fact fact about a person. For
instance in Faulkner's Sanctuary we know little about Popeye
yet very soon we come to an awful knowledge of him from
action and a few words and he threatens to come off the page.
After the first few pages this novel becomes pedestrian,
uninspired and down right boring. Is all Pelecanos like
this?
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