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Road Dogs - Elmore Leonard

road-dogsElmore Leonard’s latest novel marries a few of his memorable characters from yesteryear with a comically unstable and entertaining plot.

Road Dogs features the lovable and polite bank robber Jack Foley (Out Of Sight) who is rescued from a thirty year prison sentence by jailmate Cundo Rey (La Brava). Cundo has the cash and the girl but is a little short of smarts, trusting those around him to do the thinking for him. He thinks he has a tight hold on his girlfriend, Dawn (from Riding The Rap, whose name just screams authentic psychic), however as the story continues, twists and turns, unpredictable allegiances create an engaging world of criminals, semi-criminals, and one bitter cop.

Reading the mountains of praise of Leonard’s work, it’s clear that he is admired for, among many traits, his impressive grasp of dialogue. For me, his dialogue forces me to hear the characters’ voices loud and clear in my head, in a way that I have never experienced with any other writer. And it doesn’t lower the overall quality of writing, which is equally impressive. The story is carried by conversation, the way stories like these should be.

Thank you to Lea who loves Elmore Leonard for continually telling me he is “the crime-writer’s crime-writer”, which rung in my head until I finally picked up a book.

Road Dogs is kooky and silly but at the same sharp and clean cut. Some of the characters have hilariously lame names, such as a bodyguard named Zorro and a bookkeeper known as The Monk, but Leonard plays it cool, if not a little tongue in cheek. I’m tempted to quote here Foley’s introduction to The Zorro, however it loses its quirkiness out of context.

The story beginning is a little muddled: a whole lot of what seems like nothing, as Cundo and Foley get transported in a police van, but it soon stretches into an absorbing plot that plods along for a bit, then races you around a corner, then plods through a bank, then races off the roof of a building…you get the idea. All in all a rewarding read, that may convert non-crime readers, if they have an open mind.

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July 8th, 2009ReviewsRead More >No Comments


Callgirl by Jeanette Angell

callgirlIf you visit your local Blockbuster you might find a seedy looking dvd series starring Billie Piper as an escort called Confessions of a London Callgirl…or something.

So, Dr. Jen Angell, forgive me for not expecting much from your autobiographical account of your little stint as a mid-level callgirl. You’re not the first person to expose the inner workings of the prostitution profession. You are, however, my first experience reading such a book.

Jen starts off as the ex-girlfriend of “rat bastard” boyfriend, a shady character who not only was a drug dealer, but has zipped off with Jen’s life savings, leaving her penniless and in debt. Her thin pay packet as a community college lecturer isn’t sufficient, and leads to her meeting Peach, the madam of an escort service.

Jen’s moral struggle is quickly resolved, and the rest of the book features detailed descriptions of various clients (names changed of course) and some sad stories about the overwhelming presence of drug addiction. Jen does a bit of coke herself, but she’s smart, she pulls herself out.

It’s a story that was meant to challenge society’s assumptions about prostitution, and with a background (read: doctorate) in anthropology and sociology, Jen should have made excellent narrator. Angell interjects the flow of events with philosophical, sweeping statements about sexuality, society, men and women.

It ends up as a flaccid attempt to champion the rights of prostitutes and challenge stereotypes.
Stylistically (not content-wise), it’s an awkward book to read. The author’s voice is inconsistent: it teeters between formal and dry academic language, and casual “street talk” of a low literary quality. Jen is proud, beautiful and smart, blessed with genes that stop clients from ever guessing that she’s in fact in her early thirties. We hear the sordid details of various encounters with clients, but barely anything about the one romantic relationship that occurs during the callgirl years. It would have been interesting to find out more about this particular relationship, given its unique nature: the man was regularly hired to drive girls to and from clients’ houses, and was already aware of Jen’s part-time profession.

In short, those interested in learning more about the prostitution profession should look elsewhere.

And for the record I’m not a prude. If anybody else has read this book or something similar it would be interesting to hear your thoughts: did it really change your views on prostitution, whatever they were?

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July 7th, 2009ReviewsRead More >1 Comment


Tales of Freedom - Ben Okri

talesoffreedomIt’s always good fun to see what crazy contraptions writers and poets have under their belts. Ben Okri’s is his own creation - story fused with haiku: Stoku.

The fourteen short stories that form the incredibly quick, not so painless read, Tales of Freedom, are sweet and sparse, if not a little pretentious.

Okri’s writing doesn’t quite transcend his genre; as a reader you will always be aware of this post-modern style, and with the exception of two stories, it takes away from the whole story reading experience.

The two exceptions to this are the first story, offering more in length and substance than the rest of the book, called The Comic Destiny about manslave Pinprop and the Old Man and Old Woman he serves, and The Mysterious Anxiety of Them and Us which is metaphoric and a little chilling, about the dangers of turning your back to the wrong people at a buffet.

Okriwon the Booker Prize for The Famished Road, which I haven’t read, but honestly can’t be inclined to after this stubbornly ambitious piece of work that leaves wanting.

Some genres need warming up to. Short stories are one of these, especially if you are a seasoned and happily engaged novel reader. No amount of warming up can prepare one for these short stories.

I’ve been re-reading it and trying to measure the rhythm and syllables. Feel free to correct me but I do believe the short story element largely outweighs the haiku element, to the point where its actual presence is contestable. Minimalism in writing is an intricate art that either succeeds beautifully or crumbles pathetically. Take a guess as to what this one does.

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July 2nd, 2009ReviewsRead More >No Comments


Musing Mondays

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Musing Mondays (BIG)Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about mid-year reading…

Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites?

I think I’m getting there with my books. I’ve noticed that this year especially, my tastes have become more narrow, which is unfortunate, but it means that I’ve read a lot of different books to get to this stage. I think.

I’ve reread a few books, including Jane Eyre recently, which, when you’re working through a list of books you want to read, can be seen as wasting time. But I could never, ever think that reading Jane Eyre is a waste of time.

Thanks to blog’s like Matt’s and Mae’s, I’ve found new books to read and love, and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov definitely stands out here.

I’ve also started reading more about the Beats, which made Junky so much more rewarding, and I’ve started dabbling in comics and graphic novels, which I never thought I would.

Interestingly enough, when I first started this blog I would pretty much review every book I had written. Now I review only a small fraction of the books that I read, because, dabbling into new genres, and moving more towards literature and away from airport fiction, etc., I’m finding it more difficult to keep up with the original intentions of With Extra Pulp.

Now that I’ve begun reading Proust, I am not sure what the rest of the year will hold for me, reading-wise. Maybe Sydney will have a different effect on me as well.

What books have you read so far this year? Anything worth mentioning?

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June 29th, 2009Monday MusingRead More >12 Comments


Next - Michael Crichton

nextTalking animals are cool. Talking animals that have a moral lesson are not cool.

Next by Michael Crichton was published about three years ago as a science fiction action novel with a moral: Don’t patent genes. Unlike Jurassic Park, which has a bit more moral ambiguity (dinosaurs are just freaking awesome), action sequences involving velociraptors and a hot paleobotanist, Next features an assortment of largely flat, unlikeable characters, whose only roles seem to be to represent various stakeholders in the scientific and ethical debate surrounding the patenting of genes.

This is why reading too many books by the same author is dangerous. They get tiring.

There are elements of this novel that are actually cool: The spunky and quick thinking female lawyer Alex, who can and will wield a shotgun to protect herself and her son from evil bounty hunters after their cells; a talking and swearing multilingual orangutan AND a parrot that knows the words to “Danse Magic Danse” by David Bowie/Goblin King. (Yes, folks, I’m talking about Labyrinth!

There are many interwoven stories within this novel, but this is not executed neatly. It’s understood, generally, that character development is often sacrificed at the hands of exciting action, but Next not only lacks exciting action, its weak attempt at character development is sporadic, lazy and full of cliches.

Crichton tries to explore the current climate and potential possibilities around genetics and biotechnology, but his agenda is far too obvious: he even ends the book with a section on “what he learned through his research” which is a more factual way of telling us to STOP GENE PATENTING. Yes thank you, we get it already.

By far, the best characters in this novel were the transgenic animals. If you don’t know what that means, read Next but don’t expect a stellar piece of writing. But once again, we get a condescending story about the dangers of playing God with our advanced technical prowess. Power = responsibility, etc. You’ve heard it before.

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June 23rd, 2009ReviewsRead More >3 Comments


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