The Turnaround (Hardcover)

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Marcel Berlins, THE TIMES
'George Pelecanos is in subdued, reflective mood: the novel is no less powerful for that. ... in its quite way it is just as truthful and provocative'

Review
'George Pelecanos is in subdued, reflective mood: the novel is no less powerful for that. ... in its quiet way it is just as truthful and provocative' (Marcel Berlins THE TIMES )

'The Turnaround is about fathers and sons, growing up and growing old, yet it is effortlessly gripping and moving. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece.' (Mark Sanderson EVENING STANDARD )

'Crime novelist George Pelecanos has created a stylish, unsettling meditation on the repercussions of wrongdoing that confounds expectations. ... Thought-provoking as ever, Pelecanos manages to write a tale that is intimate and panoramic, taut and lyrical.' (METRO )

'He is, we reckon, the best Amerian writer working at the moment. And no, we don't just mean in crime fiction.' (THE HERALD )

'Pelecanos has a perfect ear for the rhythms of life and language in his beloved Washington - not the nabobs of Capital Hill, but the ghettoes and the immigrant communities he knows so well. ... This is an excellent thriller about choices, family values, loyalty, and, ultimately, violent redemption.' (Matthew Lewin THE GUARDIAN )

'What Billingham does for London in terms of grim reality, George Pelecanos and Richard Price, two of the writers on The Wire, do for urban East Coast America. The Turnaround is a complex story ... a wonderful low-key novel, as much about guilt and redemption as about crime, and - as always - Pelecanos is a meticulous chronicler of his place and time.' (Carla McKay DAILY MAIL )

'[Pelecanos] deserves all the praise showered on him. ... Once again Pelecanos scores high ... American crime writing at its finest.' (Mark Timlin INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

'Pelecanos has a wonderful gift for scene-setting and his unobtrusive way of slipping in a subliminal soundtrack for the reader makes already supremely strong stories really burst into life.' (DUBLIN EVENING HERALD )

'Just as Dickens gave literary expression to the lives of the powerless in the most powerful city in the world, 19th century London, George Pelecanos too arguably has achieved the same feat in Washington. In The Turnaround ... you will not find prostrate oppressed characters ... there is always resilience, intelligence and, most of all, hope. These elements are not thrown together but beautifully combined in the prose and dialogue that may yet make The Turnaround a modern classic.' (SOCIALIST REVIEW )

'being one of the trio of crime novelists responsible for much of hte scriptwriting on The Greatest Show Ever is all the recommendation us Wire fans need. ... His eye for the detail (and the music) of American blue-collar life and willingness to let his creations breath make The Turnaround a credible and forceful examination into making up and making do.' (THE WORD )

'Pelecanos is skilled at narrative, and his characters' dilemmas are evoked grimly and vividly. Best of all is his bleak picture of the poorer side of a city where lives are constantly menaced by an unholy trinity of crime, racism and deprivation.' (Andrew Taylor THE SPECTATOR )

'This is an intelligent, moving and compelling novel, even by Pelecanos' high standards.' (MORNING STAR )

'George Pelecanos's work has long since transcended the crime fiction genre, and his fifteenth novel, The Turnaround, finds him at the height of his powers as a trenchant social critic.' (NEW HUMANIST )

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10 Reviews 5 star:  (6) 4 star:  (3) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.5 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars WHEN THE PAST THREATENS THE PRESENT, 12 Sep 2008 By  Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    Who among us hasn't done something dumb and lived to regret it? Hopefully none of our blunders have been as blindly, irrationally stupid as the act of three young white men, Alex Pappas, Pete Whitten, and Billy Cachoris. Their decision sets the stage for one more haunting, richly configured story by George Pelecanos (The Night Gardener). Alex is in the backseat when Pete and Billy decide that a sure cure for their boredom is to go over the tracks into the black area of Washington, D.C., and cause some trouble. They get more than they bargained for when they find themselves in a dead-end facing a tough trio - Charles Baker and brothers Raymond and James Monroe. Perhaps the devil-take-the-hindmost interlopers didn't know that they'd been preceded by other white boys who got their jollies by shouting racial epithets and tossing garbage at residents. Angered by this treatment one of the black boys had something new - a gun. It was fired and lives were irrevocably changed. Skipping ahead decades we find Alex, still bearing the facial scars of that night, has married and taken over his father's lunch business. Raymond, who served time for the shooting is now employed as a Walter Reed Hospital physical therapist. Life had not been kind to Charles nor was he kind to life - he became a full-time dangerous criminal. Pete is now an attorney, and Billy who died that night is long in his grave. Some are trying to forget the past, one wants vengeance. What happens when two who were once enemies meet again? - Gail Cooke Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Stuck In His Own "Turnaround", 11 Jul 2009 By  Nancy Martin (Pennsylvania (orig. NY)) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    My introduction to George Pelecanos dates back many years ago when I saw him at a book signing with his friend Michael Connelly. At the time, he had just written Right As Rain, which was a real departure from his Nick Stefanos' series. I'm guessing I've read at least seven of his books so my review is not coming from someone who is new to this author. So many of his books have pieces of him in them. He once worked in an appliance store and characters in his previous books have also done so. His father owned a cafe and he used to work at the lunch counter as does Alex in this book. He was known to play around with his father's gun when he was young as does Raymond with his brother's gun in this book. The Turnaround is probably his most autobiographical work so far. He vividly describes his hours working with his father and uses a similar theme I have seen in many of his books where your upbringing is everything...it's the beginning and end of who you are and what you do. Set once again in D.C., it's always about the journey with Pelecanos and not the actual crime. He's a historian so every book is a learning experience on the history of D.C. At this point, I feel I probably know more about where he grew up than I do about where I did. On the one hand, I understand that Pelecanos is trying to create accurate pictures of the way things were in the eras he's writing about but at times I want to say, "enough is enough". I grew up in Brooklyn and perhaps if he was writing about Brooklyn, I'd be so into going down memory lane with him. He develops his characters and they always have the same interests as his....cars, sports, music, music, music, music...until I can't take it anymore. Family is always lurking in the background of each of Pelecanos' offerings as he writes about race, crime, social issues and morality. Looking back at the characters' family usually gives you an edge into how the book will turn out. In life, you find that there are two kind of turnarounds...the one you get stuck in and the one you come out of. This story is one of three kids out for an afternoon summer joyride and driving through an area they shouldn't be in and exacerbating the situation by having words with some of the other kids living there forcing a racial altercation that will have dire ramifications. The driver of the car feels he can just drive in, do his damage, go through the turnaround and leave. But, he will find out too soon that this is the turnaround you get stuck in. In Pelecanos' world, there usually aren't any cops as the justice is dished out right on the streets. And on this day, justice will be dished out on a silver platter or should I say silver "gun". The book centers around what happens when the characters, who are now in their 50's, come upon each other again some thirty years later. A few have been in jail, some have been disfigured while others live in their own kind of hell with the knowledge of what really happened. If you've read as many of Pelecanos novels as I have, it will be easy to see that what you're reading really isn't what really happened if you remember how much morality and family plays into his stories. So, for this reader, there weren't too many surprises. When I had read the premise of this story, teenagers doing something bad in their teens, being punished for it and then meeting up again later in life, I had dreams of another "Sleepers" by Lorenzo Carcaterra. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Listen, I love Pelecanos and feel an affinity to him but after so many novels, I think he owes his fans "the book"....the one that's going to push him over the top. I'm not even going to mention the other novels I'm thinking of that separated their authors from the mainstream because any real reader knows who and what I'm referring to. I'm just dying to read this from Pelecanos. And I want him to be able to drop all of his security blankets and leave out the music and sports references completely. Well, perhaps he can add a few. I know certain authors have certain things they must add in each book even if it's just a one line mention. Carcaterra needs to have a St. Jude and Yankee's shoutout while Irving needs his bears and Vienna shoutouts. I get it that Pelecanos needs his music shoutout but he has to know that many of his readers are tiring of it. I understand how it's supposed to set the stage for the time and place but this reader feels he overdoes it. After I finished this, I actually said to myself that I'm done with Pelecanos. Then I remembered that I had recently bought The Way Home and it was too late to return it. I also have one or two more of his Nick Stefanos' series here waiting to be read. So I guess I'm not done. I'm in my own "turnaround" and hoping one of these days he's going to enter the turnaround that you don't get stuck in and come out with the novel we've all been waiting for. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   8 of 11 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Aboslutely a must read, 22 Aug 2008 By  Big Jim "Big Jim" (London, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    Pelecanos has taken the crime genre and given it a darn good shake up. He imbues his books with a humanity and level headedness which is miles away from the schlock horror of many of his peers. He is like an easier om the eye James Ellroy and by setting some of this book in 1972 he can discourse on politics, society and gang culture then annd now which gives this fiction a veneer of believeable truth. This is a thriller of the highest order, not just a "crime" novel, a read in one sitting masterpiece. Yes it is that good! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 10 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars Cracking crime story with heart George Pelecanos has been producing sublime morality stories set in the Washington DC that visitors to the White House don't know about for a long time. Read more Published 1 month ago by Kentspur 4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner I have been reading George Pelecanos for a while now & this is one of his best novels. He started with a series of great books featuring Nick Stefanos as a sort of PI, wrote a... Read more Published 5 months ago by Mr. Gareth Price 5.0 out of 5 stars Superb writing I'd never heard of George Pelacanos until I read a review in a newspaper which rated it one of the thrillers of the year. Read more Published 6 months ago by Strong Cheddar 5.0 out of 5 stars Yet another masterpiece. Undoubtedly the most important writer of urban fiction since Elmore Leonard, it's difficult to understand why Pelecanos isn't better known outide the US, despite unanimous and... Read more Published 7 months ago by A. Miles 5.0 out of 5 stars Out of the Past I've been a huge Pelecanos fan since I discovered his books in the early '90s, so every new one from him is something to be savored over a long weekend. Read more Published 7 months ago by A. Ross 5.0 out of 5 stars His masterpiece A new Pelecanos novel is something to look forward to and to savour,like a fine whiskey. I've enjoyed all his books, but The Turnaround stands out because you cannot help but feel... Read more Published 9 months ago by penman64 5.0 out of 5 stars Pelecanos gets better and better I have long been and admirer of Mr Pelecanos owning all his books as well as being a devotee of 'The Wire'. This new book does not disappoint, it is simply magnificent. Published 10 months ago by MICHAEL MCVEY Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 10 customer reviews...

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