Don Winslow (1) (1953–)
Author of The Power of the Dog
For other authors named Don Winslow, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Don Winslow was born in New York City on October 31, 1953. He received a degree in African history from the University of Nebraska. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a movie theater manager, private investigator, safari guide, actor, theater director and consultant. His works include show more A Cool Breeze on the Underground, The Death and Life of Bobby Z, The Winter of Frankie Machine, Savages, The Kings of Cool, The Cartel, and the Neal Carey Mysteries series. His novel California Fire and Life won the Shamus Award. In 2016, he won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best crime thriller of the year for The Cartel. He has also written for film and television. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: reading at National Book Festival By Slowking4 - Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62180044
Series
Works by Don Winslow
Crime 101: A Novella 2 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Winslow, Don
- Legal name
- Winslow, Don
- Other names
- Уинслоу, Дон
- Birthdate
- 1953-10-31
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Country (for map)
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York City, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Perryville, Rhode Island, USA
New York City, New York, USA
Julian, California, USA - Education
- University of Nebraska (African History)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (M.A.) (Military History) - Occupations
- theatre manager
private investigator
safari guide
writer
screenwriter
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 34
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 10,455
- Popularity
- #2,279
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 538
- ISBNs
- 741
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 26
The plot -- a riff on the origins of the Trojan War, played out among the rival Irish and Italian mobs in mid-eighties Providence -- is standard crime-fiction stuff. There are ethnic tensions, generational conflicts, and complicated family loyalties. The working-class social milieu is also familiar. You can feel Winslow, on both fronts, working what's usually Dennis Lehane's corner. In [City on Fire], though, Winslow takes a different path through the material than either Lehane or (for that matter) Mario Puzo. His hero, Danny Ryan, is anything but a young man with a pedigree, destined for great things. He's a modestly talented, modestly accomplished, modestly ambitious gangster who longs for more respect and responsibility than he gets from those he serves.
When a slight at an end-of-summer clambake spirals into open warfare between rival ethnic mobs, Danny gets a far bigger shot than he ever dreamed of: a chance to establish himself as a great leader or die in the process. Winslow makes it clear, however, that Danny isn't a Rhode Island version of Joe Coughlin, let alone Michael Corleone. He alternates between brilliant improvisations and disastrous miscalculations, sometimes supported by those closest to him and other times undermined by them for their own purposes. The book -- first in a trilogy -- ends with him achieving one of his dearest wishes, but at a terrible cost. Danny is, throughout the story, plausibly and refreshingly imperfect.
[City on Fire] is a crime story, not an extended contemplation of the human condition, but it has more going on, I think, than many reviewers on LibraryThing have given it credit for. "Loyalty" and "respect" are old, old tropes in crime stories, but Winslow finds interesting things to do with them, using them in more complicated ways than he seems to be doing at first. Danny's complicated family life, particularly his relationships with his estranged mother and quasi-adopted parents, also turn out to be more intriguing than it appears at first glance.
One of the running themes of the story is how the weight of history (personal, family, community) and the push and pull of old obligations (real or imagined) steers our lives in directions other than the ones we might choose for ourselves, given the chance. In this, as in his evocation of the Narragansett Bay fog, Winslow gets the ineffable nature of the thing perfectly right.… (more)