Get Shorty
Ratings27
Average rating3.7
I picked up a copy of this novel for a couple of bucks because it looked like a quick, easy read - this is the first Elmore Leonard novel I have read.
The synopsis on the back cover does the storyline justice - Mob-connected loan shark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind—plus his “friends” have a bad habit of dying there. So when he chases a deadbeat client out to Hollywood, Chili figures he might like to stay. This town, with its dream-makers, glitter, hucksters, and liars—plus gorgeous, partially clad would-be starlets everywhere you look—seems ideal for an enterprising criminal with a taste for the cinematic. Besides, Chili's got an idea for a killer movie, though it could very possibly kill him to get it made.
Chili Palmer is undoubtedly the lovable rouge character - a tough guy who does his best not to resort to violence, a deep thinker, and a guy who takes the big picture into account. He is the likeable character of the book, along with Karen Flores - the actress who got parts in scream movies at the start of her career (based on her looks at her scream), but doesn't get many parts now.
There is a complex web, multiple storylines which weave together, but all revolve around Chili Palmer, and they all get wrapped up at the end.
Short and quick. 3 stars.
I wanted to like Get Shorty more than I did, but honestly it wasn't clever enough. The whole book is a comparison between the criminal world and Hollywood, with the conclusion that they are basically the same—full of lying, cheating, full of it and themselves, crooks.
That premise was okay with me, but the author went about it by making it self-reflexive (you know, meta). That would have been okay with me too if it wasn't so repetitive. It felt like most of it was different characters explaining the plot of the book I was reading to me over and over again.
And those characters? Meh. I liked Chili. He wasn't as stereotypical as he could have been. But all of the characters were more or less bland. I didn't care much about them or what happened to them. And none of them really stood out.
The writing style was good. I liked Elmore Leonard's sense of voice and the occasional humor injected in.
Overall, it was okay but didn't live up to the hype. Maybe I'll like the movie better. (Edit: I did like the movie better. It happens more than you'd think.)
Being a huge fan of the movie, it was risky for me to read this book. If the book is better, the movie is tainted; if the movie is better, then it's a bummer and waste of time. Fortunately the book is just as good, funny, and exciting as the movie.
The story started off so well but, for me, increasingly lost impact as Chilli became Mr Nice Guy.
