A priest with a cooler-than-thou attitude, a sexy wannabe stand-up comedienne with a grudge, a wiseguy with a bleeding heart and the dumbest hit-man in literature join forces to fantastic effect in Elmore Leonard's delicious new caper. Returning from a 'missionary position' in Rwanda, Father Terry needs to raise money for his pagan babies. What better way of doing this is there than shaking down the mob? Teaming up with fast-talking Debbie Dewey seems like a good idea, but as the wiseguys wise up and the bullets start to fly, who's fooling who? Filled with Leonard's trademark crackling dialogue and whiplash plot turns, this new novel is an instant classic from one of the most respected writers around.
If I said there was something so sweet about Bandits, so tenderhearted, well, this one’s of the same heart. A Rwandan genocide; a con man in Detroit. There’s just something about reading Elmore that puts me in mind of, bear with me, Somerset Maugham. Specifically, this one line Maugham wrote. About God, which is really about human nature, about how of all the things we’ll credit to him it’s not common-sense or tolerance. “If he knew as much about human nature as I do,” Maugham wrote, “he’d know how much goodness there is even in the worst and how much wickedness in the best.”
Goodness in the worst; wickedness in the best. Elmore’s of the same wonderful order. As am I. I’d like to think deep down, we all are.
(At least if there’s a title that can follow A Feast of Snakes, it might be Pagan Babies. Terry: “There aren’t that many pagans anymore. They’ve all been converted to something. A lot of Seventh Day Adventists.”)
Reading updates
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24 August, 2013:
Finished reading
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24 August, 2013:
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