> After hearing much hype about Pelecanos' hard-boiled
novels, I finally could
> read 'Shoedog'- as I had difficulties to find his
other works.
You should be able to get them easily from Amazon.com
Although I haven't read it, I understand that _Shoedog_ is
something of
a departure for Pelecanos (I believe there are one or two
other
'departures', though I don't have the titles to hand)
inasmuch as it is
(and they are) not part of the Stefanos series.
> Just before sending this posting, I found an
interview of Pelecanos saying
> that in this book he wanted to write in a way old
pulps were. And he cites
> Jim Thomson and David Goodis as models for it.
Ambitious, but totally out of
> proportion when looking at what Pelecanos delivers in
Shoedog!
Oh dear! It sounds like Pelecanos might be spending too much
time
reading his own cover blurbs! The spirits of Thompson and
Goodis --- as
well as the ubiquitously blurbed Hammett --- are constantly
invoked on
Pelecanos's covers. Somewhat erroneously, I would
suggest.
> I hope that 'Shoedog' is just a false step in
Pelecanos' career and that his
> Stefanos novels are of better value... and I would
like to know the feeling
> of RARA followers about them.
After reading the first Stefanos novel I think Pelecanos is
vastly
over-rated. The most recent novel, _King Suckerman_ is
more
interesting: the narrative structure is akin to that of
Quentin
Tarantino and makes for a quite interesting read. As for
Pelecanos's
representation of black experience, of masculinity and male
sexuality, a
whole range of problems arise. _King Suckerman_ is marketed
as part of
the post-modern raid on the so-called 'blaxploitation' texts
of the
1970s and it has the requisite references to popular culture
and black
style (again, cf Tarantino).
I would certainly recommend _King Suckerman_ as an
interesting read, and
as Pelecanos's most interesting work to date, but don't go in
with your
expectations *too high* and you won't be disappointed.
BTW, keep an eye out for an interesting article on _King
Suckerman_ in
_Crimetime_ 2.2
ED
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