Life in a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. B.M.A.T.C., and Etruscan typewriter erasers. Blogged by David Gorsline.
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Hard Revolution, a novel by George Pelecanos
George Pelecanos' undemanding crime novel provides backstory for his series character, policeman Derek Strange. The bulk of the novel takes place in April, 1968, at the time of riots in Washington, D.C., sparked by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Strange is a new beat cop. Pelecanos has not spared research into the period, but he generally fails to give a genuine, tactile sense of it was like to live in the District in that charged time. Too often the book reads like a name-dropping history/geography lesson; the author cites places and trademarks without letting us know why they're special. The bland narrative proceeds by the accumulation of factoids. For instance, veteran detective Frank Vaughan always flips open a "Zippo" to light his cigarette, like a 40-year-old product placement. Here is one of the better passages, one that follows the course of the riots:
The mob moved from one spot to the next, undaunted by tear gas canisters and gas grenades.
They began to break into stores between
Columbia and Park Road, a retail strip of chain and white-owned businesses.
They used small missiles and trash cans, and kicked in windows with their feet.
They uprooted street signs and used them as battering rams.
Rioters swarmed into the Lerner's and Grayson's dress stores, Irving's Men's Shop, Carousel, Kay Jewelers, Beyda's, Cannon Shoes, Howard Clothers, Mary Jane Shoes, Woolworth's, and the G.C. Murphy's five-and-dime. (p. 340)
Pelecanos attempts to shift his point of view among the various white and black characters of his story, and to change diction as he does so, but he never fully commits to it. Sometimes he jumps in and out of the voices of his low-life characters in the span of a paragraph. In dialogue, his 1968 people tend to use slang that didn't enter the mainstream until years later (at least in my white suburban ears). In the earlier section of the book (from 1959), his rush to include historical detail (you can almost hear the archived newspaper pages turning in the MLK Library) collides with his efforts to speak with his characters' voices, and this forces the boy Derek to call attention to things and places that he wouldn't really notice. And do we need to be told twice that a diner proprietor fills Heinz bottles with cheap A&P ketchup in order to save money? posted: 10:03:18 PM |
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The Flibbertigibbet flies to New England:
3. When I get to my seat, I count the rows to the exits, I read the entire
safety card, even though I know it by heart, and I listen to the entire
safety speech, even though I could recite it along with the staff. If Johnny
Depp wanted my phone number, I'd shush him during the safety lecture.
And Dale Kieger carries a grudge and recommends a baseball book.
My dad, a sign painter, spent days getting Crosley Field spruced up for the
network television cameras. And the goddam New York Yankees, with Roger
Maris and Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, came in and blew away the Reds in
five games.
posted: 1:50:01 PM |
 D. Gorsline, Proprietor
   
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