Reading More Than Blogging

It's seems that lately I've been doing a lot more reading......definitely reading a lot more than I'm blogging since I haven't posted here in over a month. As a result, I have four reviews to post all in one day. So enjoy the recommendations, or should I say, one recommendation.

STUCK IN HIS OWN "TURNAROUND"

My introduction to George Pelecanos dates back many years ago when I saw him at a book signing with his friend Michael Connelly. At the time, he had just written Right As Rain, which was a real departure from his Nick Stefanos' series. I'm guessing I've read at least seven of his books so my review is not coming from someone who is new to this author.

So many of his books have pieces of him in them. He once worked in an appliance store and characters in his previous books have also done so. His father owned a cafe and he used to work at the lunch counter as does Alex in this book. He was known to play around with his father's gun when he was young as does Raymond with his brother's gun in this book. The Turnaround is probably his most autobiographical work so far. He vividly describes his hours working with his father and uses a similar theme I have seen in many of his books where your upbringing is everything...it's the beginning and end of who you are and what you do.

Set once again in D.C., it's always about the journey with Pelecanos and not the actual crime. He's a historian so every book is a learning experience on the history of D.C. At this point, I feel I probably know more about where he grew up than I do about where I did. On the one hand, I understand that Pelecanos is trying to create accurate pictures of the way things were in the eras he's writing about but at times I want to say, "enough is enough". I grew up in Brooklyn and perhaps if he was writing about Brooklyn, I'd be so into going down memory lane with him. He develops his characters and they always have the same interests as his....cars, sports, music, music, music, music...until I can't take it anymore.

Family is always lurking in the background of each of Pelecanos' offerings as he writes about race, crime, social issues and morality. Looking back at the characters' family usually gives you an edge into how the book will turn out.

In life, you find that there are two kind of turnarounds...the one you get stuck in and the one you come out of. This story is one of three kids out for an afternoon summer joyride and driving through an area they shouldn't be in and exacerbating the situation by having words with some of the other kids living there forcing a racial altercation that will have dire ramifications. The driver of the car feels he can just drive in, do his damage, go through the turnaround and leave. But, he will find out too soon that this is the turnaround you get stuck in. In Pelecanos' world, there usually aren't any cops as the justice is dished out right on the streets. And on this day, justice will be dished out on a silver platter or should I say silver "gun".

The book centers around what happens when the characters, who are now in their 50's, come upon each other again some thirty years later. A few have been in jail, some have been disfigured while others live in their own kind of hell with the knowledge of what really happened. If you've read as many of Pelecanos novels as I have, it will be easy to see that what you're reading really isn't what really happened if you remember how much morality and family plays into his stories. So, for this reader, there weren't too many surprises.

When I had read the premise of this story, teenagers doing something bad in their teens, being punished for it and then meeting up again later in life, I had dreams of another "Sleepers" by Lorenzo Carcaterra. Unfortunately, this was not to be.

Listen, I love Pelecanos and feel an affinity to him but after so many novels, I think he owes his fans "the book"....the one that's going to push him over the top. I'm not even going to mention the other novels I'm thinking of that separated their authors from the mainstream because any real reader knows who and what I'm referring to. I'm just dying to read this from Pelecanos. And I want him to be able to drop all of his security blankets and leave out the music and sports references completely. Well, perhaps he can add a few. I know certain authors have certain things they must add in each book even if it's just a one line mention. Carcaterra needs to have a St. Jude and Yankee's shoutout while Irving needs his bears and Vienna shoutouts. I get it that Pelecanos needs his music shoutout but he has to know that many of his readers are tiring of it. I understand how it's supposed to set the stage for the time and place but this reader feels he overdoes it.

After I finished this, I actually said to myself that I'm done with Pelecanos. Then I remembered that I had recently bought The Way Home and it was too late to return it. I also have one or two more of his Nick Stefanos' series here waiting to be read. So I guess I'm not done. I'm in my own "turnaround" and hoping one of these days he's going to enter the turnaround that you don't get stuck in and come out with the novel we've all been waiting for.

3 of 5 stars