Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The "Dickens of Detroit"





To learn more about Elmore Leonard's biography and books, scroll through his website. There you'll even find the video of a local news broadcast featuring his home, which was up for sale following his death in 2013. (Fascinating tidbit: the house had ivy-patterned wallpaper.)  The website also posts recent news about the television show "Justified" which is based on one of his short stories. 

You may also refer to The Atlantic's article for more information about other Leonard stories that were made into movies. Further, The Guardian's article discussing Elmore Leonard's body of work offers high praise for this great American novelist. "The beauty of Leonard's novels can be achieved at the expense of any kind of moral judgment. It's often been said that it is hard to tell who the good guys and who the bad guys are in his novels. Sometimes, as in Freaky Deaky, you only work out who you might have been rooting for when you see who is left alive at the end. In a world of unbridled criminality, the criminal who carries out his robbery or murder with style and wit is the object of our admiration. Above all, the allure of intelligence and of articulacy carries the day: we tend to like the man who speaks best and most wittily in Leonard, the one who says "motherfucker" with the best timing."

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