Get Shorty (original 1990; edition 2005)

Have you read the gritty crime thriller, [b:The Hunter|618399|The Hunter (Parker, #1)|Richard Stark|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328724284s/618399.jpg|3948439], by Richard Stark? This is not that kind of mob story. Instead of an angry protagonist, we get the laid back Chili Palmer who sets off for Vegas to collect an unpaid debt, and ends up in L.A. While there is a revenge element to this story, the misunderstanding between Chili and Ray Bones begins with a disagreement about a coat. But you know how things can escalate...before you know it, somebody is getting shot.

Leonard does a great job spoofing mob stereotypes, as well as the Hollywood machine and its key players. I'll definitely be checking out the next book in this series. ( )

Chili Palmer is a loan shark in Miami. When one of his collection subjects skips town and goes to L.A. Chili follows.

Since he was going to L.A.. a Las Vegas casino asks him to check out Harry Zimm, a Hollywood producer whose debt hasn't been paid.

When Chili does, he learns about the film industry and the money to be made. He decides he wants to go into the film business himself.

Chili is a likable character and it's easy for the reader to root for his success.

Leonard's depiction of the Hollywood scene is right on. ( )

Chili Palmer is on a run of bad luck. He's just found out that one of his clients that owe him money isn't as dead as he was led to believe. He's also just got a new boss that has a grudge or two against him. Chili's new boss tells him to find the runner or make the payment himself so off he sets to Los Angeles via Las Vegas following the leads left behind. While he's in LA he gets mixed up in the movie business and hooks up with Harry Zimm, an independent film-maker, who seems to think he has a dynamite script that's just waiting to get made. He's trying to get A-List actor Michael Weir interested and then he can go to a major studio and get it into production as he doesn't have anywhere near the finances to do it himself. Chili agrees to help Harry out with his previous financiers, local gangsters that use Harry's films to launder their drug money, in exchange that Harry will show Chili his way around the movie business.

As with all of Elmore Leonard's books, the plot is not quite as straightforward as it seems, each character's involvement complicates things just that bit more. The dialogue is snappy and the leading man is cooler than ice. From what I can remember of the movie adaptation I'd say the book has a harder edge to it but a re-watch will be in order probably after I've read the sequel, Be Cool. ( )

Before writing Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard had written about cities such as Detroit, Miami, and Atlantic City. After writing screen plays for Hollywood (Joe Kidd, 52 Pick-Up) he decided to make Hollywood the setting for Get Shorty. His main theme is - there is a lot about Hollywood that is not that much different from what a loan shark has to deal with in Miami.

By a quirk of fate, Leo Devoe does not get on a plane that crashes into the Everglades. Leo owes the mob money and his apparent death is a God send for him; then on top of that his wife gets paid $300,000 in insurance money for his death. Leo takes the money, leaves his wife behind, changes his name, and heads for Las Vegas.

Chili Palmer is the collector for the mob. By a quirk of bad luck, his boss dies at about the same time as Leo escapes death. Chili's new boss doesn't like Chili because of a disagreement with Chili 12 years earlier. He tells Chili that he needs to collect the money that is owed the mob from Leo's wife. He gives Chili a very bad haircut to make sure he understands. Chili goes and talks to Leo's wife. She is not very happy with Leo for leaving her and taking all the money. So she tells Chili the whole story. Chili recognizes a great story when he hears one. He leaves Miami lookng for Leo in Las vegas and then in L. A. All the time knowing that he needs to find a new job. All the time knowing that he isn't going back to Miami to be a shylock anymore. And he has a good story that he thinks maybe he can turn into a movie if he can find the right people. And finding the right people is what Chili Palmer does for a living.

So begins Get Shorty. Elmore Leonard does a great job of making a complicated plot stick together and not just be believable but also seem plausible. The dialogue is the thing that holds everything together but it is also Chili that makes the story work. What Chili does in every situation is what makes you believe in the story. The only part of Get Shorty that seems weak is the ending and again it is Chili that is dead-on with his observation regarding his own movie, "Fuckin endings man, they aren't as easy as they look." ( )

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