I just read Pronto, by Elmore Leonard. It’s another of the books featuring the character of Raylan Givens, which was adopted for the television series Justified. Straight ahead pulper that offers an oddball sidetrack involving Ezra Pound in a village in Italy. It’s like fast-food.… Read More
After watching three seasons of Justified, I got around to reading Raylan, one of the Elmore Leonard books featuring the Raylan Givins character. If you’ve watched the series there is little new here, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll place the actors in the… Read More
Deadwood, the novel by Pete Dexter, was published in 1986, long before the unresolved television spectacle of the same name. Both deal with the same couple years in the strange wild west muddy world driven by greed for gold, and both deal with many of… Read More
Lowside of the Road is an unauthorized biography of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns, published in 2009. I’m going to come clean and say upfront that I haven’t read many biographies I really loved and I don’t read that many biographies period. I really liked… Read More
Some time ago when I started reading the Wallander novels by Henning Mankell, I hadn’t realized there was a popular fiction genre known as Nordic Noir, featuring a host of messed up detectives. I haven’t read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson… Read More
There are 5 stories in this book. Longer short stories? Long stories. I’m not sure what to call them. Chronologically, they occur prior to the novels and they include Wallander’s first case, when he was a uniformed officer who wanted to be a detective. Although… Read More
For years I avoided reading Mordecai Richler’s books. I can’t tell you why because there is no reason. I wish I understood it. I simply failed to read them. I knew he was a significant author. I knew I was missing out. I knew I… Read More
I finished reading this book last night and posted the following review this morning on goodreads. The Accident is one of those plot-driven mystery-thriller type books, a variation on the whodunnit. I should make a note on ratings here as I’m fairly new to goodreads.… Read More
Settling into this book was tough for me. The main character, Henry Lightcap, presents as a self-indulgent anarchist crank, gun-toting and sexist and not very likable. His wife packs him in, leaving him broke. He shoots his fridge full of holes, and along with his… Read More
Here I am at half a century old and I haven’t read Edward Abbey. I’ve been aware of his voice in America for years. I’ve heard clips of Abbey reading from his books. I know “about” him. I just haven’t got around to reading the… Read More
27th Street 