George Pelecanos (1 Viewer)

[David Kronenbourg]

is fucking deadly. the derek strange and terry quinn series are awesome. his ear for dialogue and portrayal of ghetto life is scarily accurate for a middle aged greek fella. loved the shit he did for the wire too. he's got a new book out called the turnaround. looks set to be another classic of the genre. http://internationalnoir.blogspot.com/2008/08/george-pelecanos-turnaround.html

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

i dunno, the book of his i read was really goofy - it was like quentin tarantino in book format

not bad or anything, just goofy. i can't even remember what it was called

 

[David Kronenbourg]

i dunno, the book of his i read was really goofy - it was like quentin tarantino in book format

not bad or anything, just goofy. i can't even remember what it was called

his earlier stuff is slightly in thrall to the whole tarantinoesque, pop culture referencing gansgter stuff. you should check out the quinn & strange series. they're proper gritty noir stuff. similar to richard price's stuff. denis lehane is a poof.

 

[Mitchum]

As a Wire pervert I'm open to recommendations.

What's the best place to start?

 

[David Kronenbourg]

i'd start with the strange/quinn quartet. go chronologically: right as rain, hell to pay, soul circus, hard revolution. really gripping stuff.

 

[Kid Lovebeach]

speaking of which:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/07/crime

yeah the strange / quinn novels are tops, each one better than the last.
derrick strange = lester feamon

 

[mamul]

kudos. the strange/quinn shit is deadly. the nick stefanos ones are not as good, but still decent enough.
funny you say lester because i always pictured him as bunk. is the turnaround out now?
been meanin to start on some richard price, have the wanderers but i think clockers would be more my cup of tea. that be a good starting point?

 

[David Kronenbourg]

reading this at the moment. it's pretty good i guess. sort of safe pelecanos territory. all his stock characters are there: racist white boys; angry black youths; wise middle aged black men; proud blue collar greeks. it reads like a rehash of some of his earlier work, like it was a rush job or something. the plot is pretty flimsy too. having said that, pelecanos on autopilot is still head and shoulders above most of the competition.