Elmore Leonard kicks ass.
He's a writer of "crime novels." They're not detective stories. They're about real people with real problems making real mistakes. In fact, the most consistently amazing thing to me about all of his characters is how real they are. Even more than Legolas or Luke Skywalker!
Since I finished with Raymond Chandler and he died, and Neil Gaiman hasn't written anything this month, I'm reading Leonard now. He's written dozens of books, and lots of them have been made into movies: Out of Sight, Rum Punch (Jackie Brown), Get Shorty, Mr. Majestyk, Joe Kidd, Hombre (I haven't read any of his westerns yet).
I read Killshot (soon to be a major motion picture), Bandits, Mr. Paradise, and now I'm reading Freaky Deaky. They have all been excellent, and enjoyable and speedy reads. I love this guy.
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5 comments:
After you run out of Leonard, might I reccomend Richard Stark (and when you run out of him, his innumerable books under his real name, Donald Westlake)? He's one of my favorite authors, and while the situations can get a bit unreal--particularly in the Dortmunder series--they're nearly all incredibly readable.
I won't be running out of Leonard for a long time, so maybe I'll sneak some Stark in there soon.
I'm a big fan of readable, and I find Tolkien and Martin and Rowling to be ponderous at times.
Thanks for the tip!
Tolkien is BORING. But he put an awesome story in there. I much prefer the hobbit to his other books.
Is High Fidelity the same as the John Cusack movie? I loved that!
Elmore Leonard's Killshot will be coming out in movie form real soon, starring Diane Lane. I can't wait!
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