Get Shorty

Product Information

Adapted from the book jacket: A novel that proves the successful crook has all the job skills required to make it in Hollywood. Yet, through the conversations that occur in those four locations, we traverse back and forth in time and range all across the country. A Leonard revival followed with Jackie Brown and Out of Sight on film and Karen Sisco and Justified on TV. And that dialogue wasn’t just pitch-perfect and often hilarious and profane (although it was all those things), it also advanced the story and gave you a full glimpse into the interior lives of characters who lived several zip codes away from anything resembling introspection.

Twelve years later, Chili is phasing himself out of the loan shark business, doing collection work for local merchants and a couple of casinos in Las Vegas, as well as handling a few regular borrowers who only need an icy stare to pay up. At the end of the first chapter, Chili inadvertently stumbles upon the fact that a dry cleaner has faked his own death.Like many of Leonard’s novels Get Shorty has been adapted into a film and I decided that it would be a good idea to read the book before watching an adaption, unlike the case with the Raylan Givens novels, as to which I saw Justified first, and when I inevitably get around to reading the novel that inspired Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, it will be a similar story. Chilli Palmer is the cool guy trying to get out of the loan shark business and into the movie business. He's funny, clever, has great insight into his characters, and his stories move so briskly that there isn't a wasted paragraph in the book. Some, I've even seen scripts where I know words weren't spelled right and there was hardly any commas in it. Even the minor characters are very well-drawn and entertaining--certainly no surprise in a novel by Elmore Leonard.

His on-point characters and no-holds-barred narratives make these stories pretty much clapperboard ready, with actors and directors including Quentin Tarantino, John Travolta and Gene Hackman queuing up for screen credits. I may need to visit them again in the near future and hope that there’s more of his work there, because I can’t wait to check out what else the author has written. In closing this is the first ebook I've read that includes a synopsis of every book by the author, an interview and writing tips!The movie is not only a stellar entertainment, but ended a forty-odd year dry spell in which Hollywood seemed unable or unwilling to balance the explosiveness of Leonard's violence with the sweetness of his characters and their casual, often hilarious, dialogue. But Harry can't help tripping over his own feet and spoiling Chili's efforts to make his life easier. For those familiar with Leonard, you know he specializes in unique approaches to crime and this one is right up his alley. That voice was the outgrowth of the most finely tuned ear for urban speech that American letters has produced. During his life Elmore Leonard was long associated with the movie industry and had some serious run-ins with the moguls of the industry.