Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1980s (Loa #267): City Primeval / Labrava / Glitz / Freaky Deaky

The 1980s Elmore Leonard

The line between genre literature written for entertainment and more thoughtful, artistic writing is frequently difficult to draw. A virtue of American culture is its attempt to break down this distinction, an attempt which sometimes is successful. Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) is an example of a writer who straddles the line between popular entertainment and literature. In his long career, Leonard first wrote westerns before turning to the genre of crime fiction. His work has received deserved popular success as well as critical recognition.

The Library of America does an invaluable service in making America's literary accomplishments available and accessible. The LOA's volumes show the breadth and diversity of America's writing and history, from popular genres to works such as "Moby-Dick" and "Leaves of Grass". Leonard's writing has been well-served by the LOA. In 2016, it published three volumes of Leonard's crime fiction followed in 2018 by a volume of Leonard's western novels and stories. The three volumes of crime writings were edited by Gregg Sutter, Leonard's longtime research assistant. Leonard himself selected the works to be included in the LOA series.

This volume, "Four Novels of the 1980s" is the middle of the three volumes of Leonard's crime writings and includes four works, "City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit" (1980), "LaBrava" (1981), "Glitz" (1985), and "Freaky Deaky"(1988). The volume also includes Sutter's note on the meticulous factual research he and Leonard did for each novel together with a news article "Impressions of Murder" that Leonard wrote on the Detroit Police Department that became the basis for "City Primeval".

Leonard's writing has been growing on me. The first impression his works make usually turns on his gift for sharp, punchy, and colloquial dialogue. As I read further, I became interested in the diversity of Leonard's settings, which range in this volume from Detroit to Miami to Atlantic City. Each book shows its own strong sense of place. The strongest part of Leonard's writing may be his gift for characterization and for portraying ordinary people, good, bad, and ambiguously in-between. Leonard shows an understanding of people and his characters are finely etched. Probably for this reason, he is known as the "Dickens of Detroit". Leonard's crime stories and plotting is sometimes cumbersome and hard to follow. I think it sometimes is the weak part of his writing, but it always serves as a frame for character, setting, and language. Leonard's books are entertaining but also thoughtful and provocative.

My favorite work in this volume is "City Primeval" which is an affectionately gritty portrayal of the crime-ridden Detroit in the late 1970's. The book effectively combines crime fiction with the earlier western genre with which Leonard began his career. Leonard was a fan of movies and there are many allusions to film in his writing. (Many of his novels and stories were also filmed) This novel is a struggle between good and evil in the persons of the strong, silent police investigator, Raymond Cruz, and the flamboyant killer, Clement Mansell, the "Oklahoma Wildman". Mansell's efforts to bring the Oklahoma Wildman to justice quickly pass beyond the necessary level for law enforcement and become personal. "City Primeval" is one of Leonard's best novels.

"LaBrava" is set in the deteriorated Miami of the 1980s and features the character, Joe LaBrava, a photographer and former secret service agent. The novel features a close look at the streets, hotels, and history of Miami and of its diverse residents. The characters are photographers, artists, and aging film noir actresses together with some rather dense villains. The plotting becomes cumbersome, but the book works through its language, setting and characterizations. The book received the 1984 Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best novel.

"Glitz" is largely set in the high-roller gambling world of Atlantic City but it includes important scenes in Puerto Rico and Florida as well. The novel again pits good guy against bad guy in the persons of detective Vincent Mora, based in Miami and the viciously psychotic killer and mama's boy, Teddy Magyk. The book also has a strong component of romance between Mora and a club singer, Linda Moon, who also figures in Leonard's much later novel, "Be Cool". The title and the story capture the glitz and glitter of Atlantic City's lights and casinos which serve as a veneer for the corruption and violence underneath. "Glitz" became Leonard's first novel to become a best-seller.

"Freaky Deaky" was one of Leonard's own favorites among his novels. The story is set in Detroit of the 1980s but most of the major characters were formed during the counter-culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The primary characters in the story all are morally tarnished, even the protagonist, a sympathetically-portrayed detective who specializes in explosives, Chris Mankowski. The criminals in the story include two former radicals, Skip and Robin, who are plotting to attain the inherited wealth of another figure from the 1960s, the alcoholic, otiose Woody who is tended to by a sinister figure, Darnell, who, like Skip and Robin has served jail time. With their greed and stupidity, the criminals fight against one another as well as against their intended victim.. The book recalls the unlamented youth culture of the 1960s and what one character describes as "their own kind of freaky deaky. You remember that sexy dance? Man, we had people shooting each other over it."

The LOA is to be commended for its breadth of vision in including the works of Elmore Leonard in its series. My appreciation for Leonard has grown with this volume of 1980s novels. The book will interest readers who enjoy crime fiction as well as readers who want to explore the scope of American writing.

Robin Friedman