Published by: winnie (Karma: 83.75) on 16 September 2007 | Views: 2845
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Elmore Leonard - Get Shorty
Nobody writes openings like Elmore Leonard. Case
in point: "When Chili first came to Miami Beach twelve years ago they
were having one of their off-and-on cold winters: thirty-four degrees
the day he met Tommy Carlo for lunch at Vesuvio's on South Collins and
had his leather jacket ripped off." You need to know about this because
you need to know why there's bad blood between Chili Palmer and Ray
Bones, the guy who stole his coat and is now his boss--and has ordered
him to collect $4,200 from a dead guy. Except the guy didn't die; he
went to Las Vegas with $300,000. So Chili goes to Las Vegas, one thing
leads to another, and pretty soon he's in Los Angeles, hanging out with
a movie producer named Harry Zimm and learning what it takes to be a
player in Hollywood.
Get Shorty is classic Elmore Leonard:
While other people write "crime fiction," Leonard's come up with a
masterful social comedy that happens to be about criminals (and other
fast operators). He's a master of snappy dialogue and dizzying plot twists. The best parts of Get Shorty
move along so briskly you almost forget there's somebody with a firm
control over the story. And you'll be rooting for Chili to get the
money, the girl, and the studio deal. --Ron Hogan
