Has anyone read the new one from our old friend Mr.
Pelecanos, SOUL CIRCUS
(2003)? I noticed he was going on tour and called a store in
Seattle where was doing a signing and had them ship up a
copy. I had a bunch of stuff to do Saturday, but I couldn't
put the book down. Now I'm short on sleep and behind on an
essay, but it was worth it.
Bad reviewers still sometimes say that a crime book is so
good it
"transcends the genre" and becomes actual literature.
Pelecanos's stuff is some of the best writing in the US these
days, and we all know it, and we don't need to make up any
nonsense about leaving the genre. This book finishes up the
Derek Strange/Terry Quinn story from RIGHT AS RAIN (2001) and
HELL TO PAY (2002). (It also has an update on how Marcus Clay
and Nick Stefanos are doing.) It's got the music, the
westerns, the gunfights and shootouts, the gangsters, the
losers, the cars, the women, the drugs, and the badass
behaviour we expect. It's also got the deeper issues: race,
politics, guns and society, honour, fate, raising children,
love, redemption, how to be a decent person in a bad world.
It's all wrapped up in the streets of Washington and
Pelecanos's terse, natural style and large cast of
characters.
All that and he does it regularly every year.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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