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geisttull's review against another edition
2.0
not my favorite book of short stories. the reader's voice made all the stories sound the same. and the plots were similar to begin with.
nixieknox's review against another edition
3.0
As did many people, I liked the short stories perhaps better than the novella.
jefffrane's review against another edition
4.0
Pelecanos knows the people, the language and the history of DC--the part where humans live and die, not the shiny world of politics--better than anyone could possibly imagine. His gift for dialog is particularly fine and everywhere on display in these stories. Honestly, I lost patience for the short story years ago but clipped right through this volume as if it were a novel. Highly recommended.
janeneal's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Most of the stories are fine, but the novella at the end really bothered me.
It was raging with misogyny for really no reason at all. An actress on the show the protag is working on is called very gendered slurs and just overall painted as terrible to work with because she is vocal about the sexism of how her character is written. Another actress isn't painted quite so viciously, but same thing. There's a line she doesn't want to say because it doesn't fit with her character and it's just sexist.
This is frustrating in itself, but especially reading this now, when we know how Hollywood operates (by that, I mean predatory men like Weinstein get to paint women as bitches or difficult to work with when they don't toe the line). I hated reading the novella because of it, but thinking about it more and more really pisses me off. Especially because Pelecanos works or has worked in television, because it's certainly not a new phenomenon.
None of that is even touching on the cop stuff, which, acknowledging corruption and inequality within the system just...again, reading it now, I had very little patience for it.
It was raging with misogyny for really no reason at all. An actress on the show the protag is working on is called very gendered slurs and just overall painted as terrible to work with because she is vocal about the sexism of how her character is written. Another actress isn't painted quite so viciously, but same thing. There's a line she doesn't want to say because it doesn't fit with her character and it's just sexist.
This is frustrating in itself, but especially reading this now, when we know how Hollywood operates (by that, I mean predatory men like Weinstein get to paint women as bitches or difficult to work with when they don't toe the line). I hated reading the novella because of it, but thinking about it more and more really pisses me off. Especially because Pelecanos works or has worked in television, because it's certainly not a new phenomenon.
None of that is even touching on the cop stuff, which, acknowledging corruption and inequality within the system just...again, reading it now, I had very little patience for it.
cmleejim's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliant, Pelecanos writes liquid gold. Every story in this collection was amazing, my only complaint was the last story ran a little long. Other then that I felt like every story was similar but in a good way. The amount of tough guys pissing their pants and moaning about women really make this collection shine. Favorite story- 'When You're Hungry'
depreydeprey's review against another edition
3.0
While there is some interesting and inspired writing here this format doesn't really work to Pelecanos's strengths. While the story about the basketball player who upsets a local gang member is genuinely great the title novella is just good and the Spero Lucas origin story reads more like a biographical essay than a short story. I'm thrilled that I read this book but it never felt as important as some of my favorites of his like Drama City or Down By the River Where the Dead Men Go.
moreadsbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Bill said, "Let's watch The Wire again," and I said, "Let's watch a show we haven't seen yet," and then we watched the first episode of the first season & I said, "Let's watch all five seasons now!" I didn't know who George Pelecanos was the last time we watched it, but oh boy do I want to give him a piece of my mind after this marathon-go-around. He wrote the episode where Wallace dies! And the one where Frank goes to talk to The Greek & he gets that phone call from that damned FBI agent while Frank is walking up, & you didn't need to wait for next week to know what that meant. Apparently he's written all the penultimate episodes, which as anyone who's watched The Wire can tell you is when all the really awful shit goes down. Wallace! I've watched that first season a minimum of ten times & I still have to gather my strength to watch that scene. Anyway, I never would've felt that I could've shaken my fist at Pelecanos back in the day even if I would have known he was the writer, but now I've read almost all of his books & I feel like I know him well enough to do so at this point. Which has nothing to do with this book, but here we are.
Not many writers can make ten pages meaty enough or give their characters enough weight in such a short time that I'll feel strongly about what happens to them, and I don't know that Pelecanos succeeds that well at it, but this is neither better nor worse than I expected it to be. I don't think that short story is his best format, but he's a great writer otherwise and that's okay. I brought this home & returned it twice without reading it and I'd like to credit my subconscious with knowing that now would be the right time even though my subconscious isn't that smart (have been trying to explain 'coincidence' to my son & I think this might be one of those times), since "The Martini Shot" itself is about a guy who works as a writer on a crime show, so it was nice to picture Pelecanos on the set as I read, whether or not that's what he intended.
Not many writers can make ten pages meaty enough or give their characters enough weight in such a short time that I'll feel strongly about what happens to them, and I don't know that Pelecanos succeeds that well at it, but this is neither better nor worse than I expected it to be. I don't think that short story is his best format, but he's a great writer otherwise and that's okay. I brought this home & returned it twice without reading it and I'd like to credit my subconscious with knowing that now would be the right time even though my subconscious isn't that smart (have been trying to explain 'coincidence' to my son & I think this might be one of those times), since "The Martini Shot" itself is about a guy who works as a writer on a crime show, so it was nice to picture Pelecanos on the set as I read, whether or not that's what he intended.
tallblackguy's review
5.0
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, especially the title story. An eye for detail but not wordy, Pelecanos gets to the meat of the story and the psychology of killers and con men and the like. Even the evil have a backstory and a motive, and the good just shades of gray.
jayvall's review
3.0
I've never read anything by Pelecanos before but his episodes of shows like The Wire and Treme always resonate with me so I thought I'd give this a shot. I don't normally read short stories because I like a story with a slower burn but I liked this collection. The weakest story, I thought, was the novella The Martini Shot. It was the only one of the series where I didn't really care about the characters and the story didn't affect me much. The rest of the stories could have all been named "How I Managed to Get Myself Killed" but they were interesting and had a lingering effect. I'm not sure I have it in me to read more of his work, but I'm glad I read this.
cisnemike's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0