Book Review
Posted: March 22, 2012 Filed under: Writers Write | Tags: writers, writing, books, Elmore Leonard, Get Shorty, Be Cool, chili palmer, movie sequels Leave a comment »
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It’s embarrassing to admit that this is the first Elmore Leonard book I’ve read. Even more embarrassing is that I chose this one because it was available for immediate download from the public library. Look past pragmatism for a moment. Be Cool is more than Chili Palmer #2. It’s a send up of the entire genre of movie sequels.
Leonard is a master of plot. Protagonist Chili Palmer puts a plan in motion to see what happens next. If it works, the scene stays in the picture. If it doesn’t, he’ll let the screenwriter fix it. He keeps his options open. That’s the beauty of Be Cool. The book never steps outside of the box of Hollywood players to examine itself as literature. Yes, it’s not as good as Get Shorty or I should say, Get Leo, Chili’s fictional first movie. But . . . a sequel never is.
Leonard’s point of view is so deep that Chili slides easily from retelling scenes to living them, violating the rule of no flashback by essentially becoming an anti-flashback. I love the characters, the music business topicality, and the unexpected violence. Be Cool is labeled crime fiction. Crime farce is a better description.
The ending isn’t my favorite. It’s like an epilogue, tacked on after the essential action is over. Here, Elmore Leonard fails to follow his own advice, to leave out the parts people skip. Maybe, my disappointment has to do with a Kindle edition packed at the end with pages advertising his other works. I wasn’t prepared for the story to be over like I would be if I held a printed copy in my hand. Or maybe, Leonard left me dissatisfied on purpose–to leave room for Chili Palmer #3.
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Price To Pay
Posted: March 15, 2012 Filed under: Writers Write | Tags: compensation, politics, respect, writing Leave a comment »
I met an old man last week, eating breakfast at Las Palapas. He sat in the booth next to mine, and since we were both single, he faced me like we were at opposite ends of a long table. The diner was empty, save a busboy and our waitress, who refilled our coffee cups before taking her morning break.
“Shame. Shame on this newspaper.” He opened a quarter-folded copy of the local, but corporately-owned rag. “It says here, ‘The problem boils down to money. Uncle Sam gives veterans a government headstone or marker, burial flag, presidential memorial certificate and perpetual care of the gravesite if it is in a VA cemetery.’ But no casket. How can they say that?” His thick lilt was punctuated by a hard tap on the table with his fist. “That the problem boils down to money? I gave twenty-seven years of my life to protect my country.”
The busboy asked a question in Spanish.
My new friend answered, “Sí.”
His coffee was refilled.
“What price to pay? The problem isn’t about money. It’s about respect.”
I agreed, but I couldn’t offer any homily that would help, so I listened and nodded.
*To be fair, the article congratulates a local charity that provides caskets in San Antonio, but not Abilene, where two homeless vets died. Read more here.
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Longhand Hell
Posted: February 19, 2012 Filed under: Goals, Just One Thing, Writers Write | Tags: rough draft, writers, writing 1 Comment »
I’m writing again or I should say, TYPING. The work in progress was a 2010 NaNoWriMo rough draft, now dubbed, Tribal Lament.
The good news: the story is better than I remembered.
The bad news: my handwriting. I’m suffering for art. Deciphering hieroglyphics would be easier.
I blogged about this book every day in November 2010. The longhand manuscript was written in a Clairfontaine notebook with a Waterman fountain pen. When the month was over, the acupuncturist treated me for tennis writer’s elbow.
The manuscript is 201 pages at 320 words per page. Approximately 64,000 words. Short, I know, but the real work comes in revision, so I need to get typing. Hence, the bar graph to the right.
