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The Sweet Forever (Five Star) (Paperback)

by George Pelecanos (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 298 pages
  • Publisher: Serpent's Tail; New Ed edition (12 Oct 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1852427361
  • ISBN-13: 978-1852427368
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 120,427 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

"The tap tap tap of the blade on the glass. His dealer called that sound the mating call of the 80s." In mid-80s Washington DC, the streets are awash with cocaine, ignored by corrupt cops and capitalised upon by teenage drug gangs. For Marcus Clay and Dmitri Karras, owners of a record store deep in the ghettos and caught in the middle, something must be done. But, are good intentions worth dying for?

Pelecanos effortlessly proves here that he is masterful at playing with his readers perceptions: midway through the book, two 11-year-old boys are brutally murdered by a drug lord. A reaction of anger and remorse? Not when you are confronted with the realisation that they would have ended up like their killer. In Karras, Pelecanos portrays an acute observation of slavery to cocaine, swinging from black depression to the insane frenzies of a high: "He loved to play with the stuff: sometimes he though the ritual was the best part of doing coke."

The Sweet Forever finds George P Pelecanos at the peak of his game--hitting his literary target with unerring accuracy. With the exceptional detail, emotional power and precise characterisation nurtured in his prior works, the reader is inexorably drawn to the raw odyssey of an urban community teetering on the edge of total breakdown. --Danny Graydon --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.



The Times

‘A dirty, human slice of raw American life... Pelecanos has joined James Lee Burke and Lawrence Block at the high table of contemporary crime greats’
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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Sweet talking look at a city going to Hell., 8 Nov 2000
By A Customer
American novels have an ear for conversation that British ones lack - as converted to celluloid by Tarantino. If George V Higgins is the master then Pelicanos is coming up fast. Set in Washington DC in 1986 - a city not facing up to a rising tide of drugs - this novel tells the tale of one block. A Vietnam vet has opened his 4th record store in a downtown area where drug peddlers command the respect given a generation before to the police. One car crash and a foolish move by a white boy out of his territory sparks off a tale that takes in the BIG 3 subjects - sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll - with plenty of violence to boot. At times the 80's references seem as forced as in "The Wedding Singer" - but the flow of the voices and the spiralling plot demand your attention.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A violent morality tale for our times, 15 Aug 2007
By Jl Adcock "John Adcock" (Ashtead UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
It's 1986 and things are out of control on the streets of Washington DC. Bent cops are on the take, drug dealers and crooks run the streets, but one man - record store owner Marcus Clay - takes a stand against the decline. As a synopsis, it could have been done hundreds of times before, but Pelecanos brings a fresh slant to things, and writes well into the bargain.

The Sweet Forever reads like a violent morality play for our times; a kind of justice prevails at the book's bloody conclusion, but the author's biggest triumph is this: you actually take an interest in the low-life characters he writes about throughout the story. A rare quality in fiction of this type.
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