Pelecanos, Site-Specific

At the Washington City Paper, Mark Athitakis comes to terms with Pelecanos's way with DC details in a most unusual manner - crafting a glossary of sorts:

The stuff that George Pelecanos doesn’t write about much anymore would make for an interesting yard sale. There, a stack of videotapes of black-and-white noir films; there, a bin of Nation of Ulysses LPs, Captain Beefheart tapes, and spaghetti western soundtracks; there, a table full of gewgaws from road trips to the Outer Banks. Strewn about: bongs, shot glasses, and coke-dusted coffee tables. Back in the mid-’90s, when Pelecanos was building a reputation as a hard-boiled crime novelist for the hipster set, the pages of his novels were often stuffed to the breaking point with such artifacts. They’re mostly gone now, and what he’s hung onto says something about Pelecanos as an author—and even more about his vision of the District.

Pelecanos has spent more than 15 years writing 15 novels that, taken together, make for a panoramic story about Washington, D.C. That’s a lot of waterfronts, a lot of neglected corners, and—to pick just one of the writer’s hobby horses—a whole lot of references to Stax/Volt singles. But there’s an irony buried in this career path: As his study of the city has deepened, his writing has become more and more simplified. Read his books in chronological order—starting with 1992’s A Firing Offense up to the brand-new The Turnaround—and the change in Pelecanos’ writing mirrors the change in a typical Pelecanos character. There’s a youthful recklessness, then a growing wisdom about the world’s complexities, then a kind of essentialized understanding of it. As his characters have gone through a debullshitification process, so has he....

...The lexicon presented here is meant as a tongue-in-cheek guide to some of those habits. Pelecanos may not always be the most accurate authority on the District—his D.C. has more Greek-owned restaurants than downtown Athens, and Metro’s “doors closing” announcement really sounds nothing like “George Clinton.” Yet as a bestselling author, perhaps he’s the chief ambassador of the non-Federal District—the chief ambassador of REAL WASHINGTONIANS—to the wider world. These are the landmarks he still wants you to know about.

I love Athitakis calling Pelecanos' evolution in writing style a "gut rehab on his own prose." Because that's certainly the case: both THE NIGHT GARDENER and THE TURNAROUND represent a more mature, lean style, one that propels forward but is also more contemplative. I suspect, when the time for such things eventually comes around, we'll realize this is middle-period Pelecanos. And if that's the case, I wonder what's in store for late-period?

Comments

[John]

SPOILER WARNING: The Night Gardener

I just finished The Night Gardener today. This was my first Pelecanos novel, but I gotta say, I was underwhelmed. I don't see what the hype was about at all.

Pelecanos shows us that racial prejudice exists, and he shows us what it looks like, but he never goes any deeper than this, never provides any real insight to the issue. The characters are honest and realistic about their prejudices, racial and sexual, but the underlying causes of these prejudices are never delved into.

And the characters themselves are static. Ramone starts out a cop just doing his job, nothing more, and he ends the story the same way. He even admits this to Holiday, that he doesn't solve cases, he just goes through the motions. And that's how the whole novel feels--just going through the motions, because there is no tension in the novel at all. There's nothing at stake for anyone except Cook (who doesn't get any closure) and the Johnson family. Ramone is never in any danger, nor any of his family (which is odd. you would think Ramone and Regina would be a bit worried about Diego going out alone after a kid his age has just been murdered, but no, he has his cell phone).

Cook starts out obssessed with the Palindrome Murders and end obsessed, and the "solution" to that mystery is unsatisfyingly given to us by the author in the epilogue--the characters never find out.

Holiday changes some. He at least has a goal at the end, to prove Cook right about Reginald Wilson.

But that's it. The Palindrome Murders and Asa's murder seem to fit together somehow, but it turns out to just be a strange coincidence, authorial manipulation. The murders actually have nothing to do with each other (since one ends up being a suicide that just happens to match the murders exactly).

Lean prose I guess refers to simple writing, simple in that it forgoes a lot of description and just gets to the point. The Night Gardener mostly does that. The dialogue is really good; the novel is at its best when the characters are talking to each other. The information dumps at the beginning interrupt this flow, but it evens out as the story progresses.

Turning nouns into verbs though, is a real irritant: "Brock made a call on his cell, IGNITIONED the SS, and drove off." (emphasis added). Ignitioned? Yuck. That's one of the worst sentences I've ever read. Pelecanos does the same thing with badged and backgrounded. It's just awkward and it makes the sentences not make any logical sense. What does badging someone mean? Showing you badge, but why make it its own verb? How do you ignition your car? That just doesn't make sense. It's the interaction with the ignition that starts the car, not the ignition itself. I don't know, maybe no one else cares about that, but it drove me nuts.

So all that being said, I don't see The Night Gardener as a maturation. But then, this is my first Pelecanos novel, but that would mean that his other stuff is worse, which may be the case, but then how did he get to be so well-liked?

His descriptions of D.C. might be pretty good as a whole; I can only judge based on one book, but The Night Gardener did nothing more but name every single street the characters came near, which doesn't do much for visualization.

[Leonard T. Carruthers]

There's no accounting for taste, is there. A book that one loves another loathes. And so it goes.

"Badged" is common lingo, used by many people in law enforcement. NEver heard "ignitioned." But I'm not much interested in cars.

[Barbara]

Personally, I found it to be his most disappointing book, one designed to break out but not to play to his strengths. I liked Hard Revolution much better, and some of his earlier ones; the Big Blowdown might give you a sense of what all the fuss is about. He's good at nailing eras as well as place.

[Bastian]

I have only read one Pelecanos novel, Drama City. And i wasn't impressed at all. It was boring and cliched.

[Rob Lord]

Interesting post. I think Pelecanos continues to grow as a writer and only gets better. He paints the picture of the real Washington that is so often overshadowed by the Federal side of the nation's capital. Many have no idea that DC consists of neighborhoods, not just Congress, the National monuments and the Pentagon. There is so much more.

As for the voice on the Metro that sounded like George Clinton--it did--I can still remember that voice taking the Metro to see the 'Skins at good old RFK back in the '80's. (Now a relative of mine is the new voice of Metro for all the lines. Not the same)

Looking forward to reading THE TURNAROUND. Its nice to read a writer who is honest and genuine about what he writes and feels about the immediate world around them while throwing in the mix what he loves: cars and music. What would a Pelecanos novel be like without the soundtrack? Keep up the great work George.

[Ed Pettit]

I'm waiting for Lee Goldberg to weigh in here.

[gary dobbs AKA WESTERN WRITER JACK MARTIN]

INTERESTING POST. Pelecanos is a fave of mine

[Crippleagent@AOL.COM]

Great article. The Night Gardener is brilliant, I think The Turnaround has to be read a couple times, as I often find new and wonderful things in his books when I re-read them.

[Ed Pettit]

No Lee Goldberg? Sigh . . .

[Terms]

This information generally is shared in an aggregated form. http://realestate.blogtells.com/2008/08/28/key-glossary-of-terms-for-property-acquisition-part-3/