Re: RARA-AVIS: Early Pelecanos

From: Maura McMillan ( mmcm@azstarnet.com)
Date: 10 Aug 2000


Bill:

DC Quartet - Pelecanos' name for the group

the big blowdown king suckerman the sweet forever shame the devil

set in approx. ten year intervals.

Maura

At 10:29 PM 8/10/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>I've been reading through George Pelecanos' novels this summer, and just
>located his first two (thank you interlibrary loan). I'm really impressed
>with the high level of writing in his first, A Firing Offense (1992).
>
>He is too slow in pacing for some readers, but that's because he doesn't
>just take his protagonist through different locations and encounters on the
>way to a climax. Nick enjoys drinking, sometimes snorting, and the game of
>selling a line to someone, and that translates into unexpected experiences
>along the way. Pelecanos is excellent on the frenetic world of discount
>(appliance) selling or, for my money, the feel of certain restaurants and
>bars, either as places one works or places one lives. And, his shootouts
>are carefully staged, with equal parts of planning and spontaneous action
>determining the outcome.
>
>Some have talked about a "Washington Quartet," but all the novels center on
>DC and a loose group of characters who connect to the Greeks--Old Nick, his
>son Nick, Costa and Dimitri. All of the novels can be lined up into a
>chronology involving these characters, starting with The Big Blowdown. The
>weaving of characters and places through the different novels offers
>unexpected riches, a world one enters.
>
>Anyone know how the order would go after Blowdown? Expect A Firing
>Offense might be second, and Nick's Trip third. After that?
>
>Bill Hagen
>< billha@ionet.net>
>
>
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