I read the latest Pelecanos over the weekend and really
enjoyed it. Drama City follows Lorenzo Brown, newly released
from prison on drug charges and struggling to make a go of it
as an animal enforcement officer for the Humane Society. When
the job brings him in contact with some of his old friends
and acquaintances, the stage is set for a struggle between
doing right thing and doing the honorable thing. Should he
try to avenge the shooting of his parole officer, Rachel
Lopez, a woman he's come to see as a friend, especially since
he knows more about the circumstances than the police?
Lorenzo's old friend and running partner, Nigel Johnson, is
now the head of one drugs operation and dealing with problems
of his own--a young man he was grooming for greater
responsibility in the organization has just been killed in a
senseless confrontation with members of a rival gang--but he
still has time to worry about Lorenzo and seeing to it that
he sticks to the straight and narrow.
This is a shorter novel than some of Pelecanos' recent books,
but no less satisfying for that. The moral issues are still
as sticky and there are moments of great despair, as well as
triumph (there's a running thread of Narcotics Anonymous
meetings in the novel that provide many of these moments).
Lorenzo is an easy character to like and his heartfelt
concern for the mistreated dogs he continually deals with in
his day-to-day life is admirable. He makes some small steps
toward trying to get involved in his daughter's life--she
doesn't know him, since he's been away in prison all her
life--and he also makes the first steps toward romancing a
young single mother and her daughter. We're also treated to
glimpses of Rachel Lopez's life, marked by an honest level of
concern for her parolees when she's on the job, and careless
sex and alcohol use when she's off the clock.
I think Pelecanos' work as a writer for The Wire shows up
here in the novel, which seems more economical in the way it
deals with the drug problem and how it affects people of
varying stripes and from different walks of life. There are
fewer musical allusions, too, though they're still present,
but as less of a marker of characters' level of hipness. This
was truly a "drop everything" read, even though it meant
dropping the latest John Farris novel, Phantom Nights, which
also turned into a memorable page-turner.
Craig Larson Plymouth, MN
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Mar 2005 EST