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Guardian
‘If Curtis Mayfield were a novel this would be it’
Kirkus Reviews
‘This book smokes’
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
King Suckerman is the second in Pelecanos' DC Quartet, and now the plot centres on Dmitri Karras, who was only a young child at the end of The Big Blowdown. Although it's not necessary to have read the earlier novel, having done so will lend an air of poignancy and foreboding to the action, as events seem to push Dmitri down the same road taken by his father.
In other respects King Suckerman is different from its predecessor. It's shorter, funnier and faster, and doesn't lose impetus by painting in the back-story to the main protagonists. It's reminiscent of Elmore Leonard's best work, and Pelecanos shares Leonard's eye for detail; when he describes a young hoodlum's loping stride across a hot, dusty yard, the rayon shirt sticking to his back in the Maryland heat, one hand half-curled and the other holding the sawn-off shotgun, you can see and feel the moment. The dialogue owes a lot to Leonard too, fizzing and crackling off the page. The violence, when it comes, is shocking - far bloodier and more explicit than in Leonard's novels.
Occasionally the detail gets in the way, as Pelecanos appears to name-check every rock, soul and prog band from the mid-1970s. But just as I was beginning to get irritated with this, I found myself ticking off the LPs which I once had, and suddenly I was back in the period, in my stacked heels, patched flares and cheesecloth shirt.
Pelecanos really cares about his characters, even the worst of them, and he makes you care about them too. It's this compassion that really enfuses his fiction - that, and the sense of place, the detailed portrayal of a sprawling American city; the same qualities that elevated The Wire (for which Pelecanos wrote many of the scripts) above all other TV crime dramas.
In other respects King Suckerman is different from its predecessor. It's shorter, funnier and faster, and doesn't lose impetus by painting in the back-story to the main protagonists. It's reminiscent of Elmore Leonard's best work, and Pelecanos shares Leonard's eye for detail; when he describes a young hoodlum's loping stride across a hot, dusty yard, the rayon shirt sticking to his back in the Maryland heat, one hand half-curled and the other holding the sawn-off shotgun, you can see and feel the moment. The dialogue owes a lot to Leonard too, fizzing and crackling off the page. The violence, when it comes, is shocking - far bloodier and more explicit than in Leonard's novels.
Occasionally the detail gets in the way, as Pelecanos appears to name-check every rock, soul and prog band from the mid-1970s. But just as I was beginning to get irritated with this, I found myself ticking off the LPs which I once had, and suddenly I was back in the period, in my stacked heels, patched flares and cheesecloth shirt.
Pelecanos really cares about his characters, even the worst of them, and he makes you care about them too. It's this compassion that really enfuses his fiction - that, and the sense of place, the detailed portrayal of a sprawling American city; the same qualities that elevated The Wire (for which Pelecanos wrote many of the scripts) above all other TV crime dramas.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Blaxploitation with a Real Right soundtrack. If you are into the crime genre you'll like it, if you are into the blaxploitation, pulp fiction sort of thing you'll love it. But what sets this book apart from the others is its soundtrack, Marcus Clay owner of Real Right records knows his soul from his rock, his funk from his blues. The music in this novel is as important as it is in any movie. The author uses it to set scenes, and leave ideas resonating in the readers head much the same way as a good tune does. If you like gritty crime writing, stories of high life low living brothers and good music this is for you.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Fanatastic entertainment. Anyone who enjoyed Pulp Fiction should read this.. it's got the same reckless,knowing, funny, hip feel to it and is just a brilliant read. The first Pelecanos I read, Right as Rain was very, very good and now, after following up with this I'll be buying his entire back-catalogue. Pelecanos knows his music and is superb at depicting a sense of time and place and also excellent at friendship and relationships. Best read of the last 12 months for me. Buy it !
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Why Shaft was cool
You know that bloke you really hated at school, the one who was great looking, good at sports, funny, got all the girls, (including the one you had been secretly in love with for 3... Read more
Published on 11 July 2008 by Mr. A. I. Harrison
Read it and weep
The best book ever written? Probably, were it possible to quantify such things. With this book, even more than normal, Pelecanos will take you in, chew you up and spit you out. Read more
Published on 3 July 2007 by Danny Sigma
More plot, less violence please!
I was quite disappointed with this book, as I much enjoyed The Big Blowdown by the same author. He has real talent and style, but dilutes it in this novel with excessive graphic... Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2002 by J. Mcgregor
brilliant
Initially I hated this book,the cultural references were too knowing and just a bit too clever.As the book progressed however I came to love the references and the book. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2000
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