Elmore Leonard is one of my three favorite authors. That said, his work is either dynamite TNT or a bottle rocket, which might be a gracious way of saying he can write a dud. With forty-five novels and at least forty-two short stories to his credit, not every one of Dutch's enterprises was going to be a masterpiece. Published in 1983, Stick gets very, very close to that mark.In a continuation of his 1976 novel Swag, Stick finds Detroit heist man Ernest Stickley Jr. in Miami, paroled after serving seven years in Jackson Prison for armed robbery. A scarecrow from Oklahoma out of step with the latest fashions or action on the streets, Stick is in Florida to visit a friend from Jackson named Rainy Moya (three to four for possession with intent to deliver) and to reunite with his 14-year-old daughter, whom Stick hasn't seen since he went inside.After sipping bourbon at a marina bar called Wolfgang's and readjusting to novelties like lights and women, Stick accompanies Rainy to the penthouse of Charles Gorman III, alias Chucky, a wheeler-dealer in the drug trade whose experiences in Vietnam make it difficult for him to stand still. Chucky has contracted Rainy to deliver $200,000 to a Cuban business associate. Making the bagman and his buddy wait, Chucky meets with Kyle McLaren, an investment analyst -- a blonde investment analyst -- to discuss how he might make vast sums of cash work for him. Kyle isn't intimidated by Chucky but makes it clear she does not do laundry.Stick takes a stroll through Chucky's expensive penthouse. A man of few words, he makes something of an impression on Kyle, but his vagrancy offends Chucky, who sends along Eddie Moke, a redneck goon who works for the Cuban, to escort Rainy and Stick to the drop-off. As the Cubans approach, Moke tries to bully Stick into making the delivery. Rainy ultimately agrees to but as he steps out of the van, is shot to death by the Cubans. Stick smacks Moke upside the head and flees into the night.Certain that Chucky set them up, Stick returns to Wolfgang's the next day to wait and see what happens. He comes to the aid of Barry Stam, a wealthy investor who gets his kicks brushing shoulders with criminals. Stranded at the bar while his chauffeur is drunk someplace, Barry takes a bet that Stick can break into his Rolls Royce and start the engine in 50 seconds. On the drive to Barry's home in Biscayne Bay, the men get to know each other, in that great, great, great Elmore Leonard dialogue:"What do you do? When you're not hot-wiring cars.""Same as you," Stick said. "Nothing. Only when I'm doing it I'm not investing, trading or speculating. When I do nothing, I believe in doing nothing.""How many cars you steal in your career?""Somewhere between three and four hundred.""There any money in it?""I don't know. I don't do it anymore," Stick said. "That was a long time ago.""You just happen to have a jump-wire in your bag."Stick didn't say anything to that. Why bother.Barry offers Stick a job as a driver, with room and board provided in a garage apartment which Stick shares with a servant named Cornell, a quick-witted ex-con. Entertainment is provided by Barry's regal and bored wife, Diane, who lives in the house, and Barry's hot-headed mistress Aurora, who's being stashed on Barry's yacht, the Seaweed. Stick discovers that his boss is close friends with Chucky and that the brains behind his investment portfolio is the woman in Chucky's penthouse, Kyle. Meanwhile, Chucky is under the gun to track down Rainy's mystery friend by Nestor Soto, a Paraguayan Indian drug smuggler who lost $200,000 and one of his men in a federal sting he blames Chucky for. By keeping his ears open and his mouth shut, Stick is able to hide in plain sight from the men out to kill him, and through a relationship with Kyle, begins learning how to steal without a gun: become a stockbroker. Elmore Leonard has a gift for surfing readers across the peaks of a seedy crime story; South Florida, ex-cons and scams are common elements, as are women with the most dangerous weapon on the planet: a mind. The plots aren't important. What's important are the characters. Leonard introduces us to their desires, their fears, their colorful backgrounds and friendships, with some of the best dialogue you can find in a book. Not much seems to happen, we're simply hanging out with his characters. Until one of them pulls a gun and then I'm flipping pages to make sure my friends are all going to be okay.Stick is unique in that rather than being built around a caper, there's an upstairs/ downstairs dynamic involving master and servant. I imagined Leonard watching chauffeurs gossip in the parking lot of a country club and thinking, "I bet there's a story with these guys." The author's heart is clearly with labor, which I always enjoy, and the romance between Stick and Kyle doesn't have a false note in it. Leonard's women tend to love men who make a living outside the law and in some cases, are even turned on by it, but Kyle isn't a groupie. She is her own woman who meets a guy on her particular frequency. He just happens to be a convicted armed robber.One of the novel's fans was Burt Reynolds, who starred as the title character and directed a maligned film version. Featuring Candice Bergen as Kyle, George Segal as Barry and Charles Durning as Chucky, the film's release was delayed from August 1984 to April 1985 as Universal demanded much of the second half be reshot, focusing less on banter and more on tough guy stuff. In the interim, Reynolds had suffered a broken jaw filming City Heat. With his physical health and his commercial appeal on the wane in the reshoots, Reynolds seems to fade away as a leading man before our eyes. It is not a pleasant experience. Hollywood wouldn't begin to do Elmore Leonard justice until Get Shorty ten years later.
Ο Έρνεστ Στίκλεϊ, ή απλά Στικ, μόλις έχει αποφυλακιστεί από το Τζάκσον, όπου ήταν κλεισμένος για εφτά χρόνια λόγω των ένοπλων ληστειών που έκανε με τον Τζακ Ράιαν (μπορεί κανείς να δει τα γεγονότα αυτά στο Swag - δυστυχώς δεν έχει μεταφραστεί στα ελληνικά). Θέλοντας και μη μπλέκει πάλι. Ήταν να παραδώσει μια βαλίτσα με 200.000 δολάρια σε έναν Κουβανό έμπορο ναρκωτικών ονόματι Νέστορ Σότο, κατ'εντολήν του Τσάκι, ενός τύπου με πολλά λεφτά που έκανε διάφορες βρώμικες δουλειές. Την παράδοση θα την έκανε με φορτηγάκι, παρέα με έναν φίλο που γνώρισε στη φυλακή και που κατά κάποιο τρόπο τον έμπασε στη δουλειά αυτή, τον Ρέινι, με τους δυο τους να παίρνουν 5.000 δολάρια. Όμως τα πράγματα δεν πάνε καλά, ο Ρέινι πυροβολείται και ο Στικ την κοπανάει. Με τα πολλά ο Στικ βρίσκει δουλειά, κάνοντας τον σοφέρ για κάποιον Μπάρι, έναν πλούσιο άντρα που ασχολείται με μετοχές και άλλα παρόμοια. Οι τύποι που σκότωσαν τον Ρέινι τώρα θέλουν νεκρό και τον Στικ. Ανάμεσα σ'αυτούς είναι ο Τσάκι, αλλά και ένα άλλο βλακόμουτρο και ψυχοπαθής, ο Μόουκ, που ο Στικ συνέχεια του χάλαγε τα καπέλα. Ο Σότο όχι και τόσο, μιας και σκότωσε τον Ρέινι οπότε δεν τον ένοιαζε. Ο Μπάρι, για τον οποίο ο Στικ έκανε τον σοφέρ, είχε δοσοληψίες με αυτούς τους τύπους. Στο μεταξύ υπάρχει και η Κάιλ Μακλάρεν, η οποία δίνει συμβουλές στους πλούσιους για το τι να κάνουν τα λεφτά τους. Από την μια συμβουλεύει τον Μπάρι και από την άλλη τον Τσάκι, με τον Στικ να μαθαίνει και αυτός διάφορα πράγματα μπας και βγάλει κάνα φράγκο. Ερωτεύονται και ο ένας τον άλλο κιόλας. Εν τω μεταξύ ο Στικ δεν έχει ξεχάσει τα πέντε χιλιάρικα που του χρωστάει ο Τσάκι. Και σκέφτεται και μια κομπίνα, μια λουμπινιά... Αυτά σε γενικές γραμμές, αλλά συμβαίνουν και άλλα πολλά. Το στιλ του Λέοναρντ είναι ίδιο και απαράλλαχτο με τα άλλα βιβλία του. Ωραίοι, φίνοι διάλογοι, με χιούμορ και καλές ατάκες. Οι χαρακτήρες αρκετοί και με τις λόξες τους. Μικροαπατεώνες, μεγαλοαπατεώνες, ψυχοπαθείς, εγκληματίες πάσης φύσεως κλπ κλπ. Η ατμόσφαιρα πολύ καλή και ευχάριστη. Έχει γίνει και ταινία, την οποία σίγουρα θα δω κάποια στιγμή, με τον Μπαρτ Ρέινολντς να σκηνοθετεί και παράλληλα να υποδύεται τον Στικ.
What do You think about Stick (1983)?
Man, I forgot how great the dialogue in an Elmore Leonard novel is. Just so effortless and cool and it never feels any less than absolutely real.A very cool book. Funny, fast paced, clever - all of the above. Like with Lee Child, or Philip K. Dick, I tend not to read any of Elmore Leonard's books in a row. Because they do all come from the same kind of place with the same types of characters pulling similar types of scams. Even though they're usually great, the formula can start to stick after awhile.Having said that, it's been well over a year - maybe two - since I've read one of his books, and man did it all feel fresh as a fucking daisy. I loved all the characters, and all of their motivations felt real - as did the world of crime and the legal system that surrounded it. Felt like a lot of real insider knowledge. Same goes for the world of trades and stocks that play a part in this story.And one of the best things about Leonard's writing, is that while he's got slick tough guys and cock-sure bad guys down to a fine art, he also writes women really well. Women who don't need to slide underneath exploding tanker trucks while shooting twenty bad guys to be considered strong and independent.Quality stuff. It definitely won't be another two years before I pick up another one.
—Simon Wood
A Hard Man; Done hard time; Gets hard luck; Don't give fuck; Meets loud fools; Makes own rules; Meets good girls; Lays down tool; Owed five Gs; By drug Bs; Revenge? No; Levels up, slow.(This is an Elmore Leonard set in 80s Miami (Biscayne Bay - where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day), with big time fiscal hustlers, luded out dealers, sly ex-cons and dumb cowboys all in the mix. Elmore Leonard is a guarantee of hard-boiled quality, like a Marks and Spencer Egg Mayo Sandwich. Get yerself the meal deal, kid.)[In What Are The Odds News I was listening to the Minutemen Double Nickels On The Dime for the first or second time. I didn't know it has a cover of Dr Wu by Steely Dan on it, but it came on, and as they sang the lyric mentioning Biscayne Bay, those same words came into view in the book. So...]
—Edmole
... 7/10Alright, so certain writers frequently write about writers, some write about espionage, others often write about sports, or diseases, and so on. All kinds of subjects and themes. Having been exposed to Elmore Leonard's work four times now (if we can count the movies L.A. Confidential and Jackie Brown), which admittedly is not a lot considering how prolific he was, I'm becoming more and more convinced that his most frequent subject is film. I read Be Cool, regrettably, and enjoyed this one a lot more-- yet once again it came back to movies. He's the most film-oriented novelist I know of.That said, this is the story of an ex-con in Miami, Ernest "Stick" Stickley, nearly murdered just for riding shotgun on an ill-fated, criminal pay-off, and then taking a creative form of a revenge on the man who set him up. It's entertaining stuff, to be sure. Leonard is a direct, economical writer who clearly honed his talent over the years (this was early 1980's work, closer to the prime of his career than Be Cool...) and his dialogue is justifiably admired for its realistic, idiomatic qualities. It rings true. His characters are all, well, characters: uniquely human and interesting. I especially liked Cornell, Kyle / Emma, and Stick himself. There are plenty of coincidences and unpredictable turns of the plot here which actually only serve to make the story truer to life, easier to believe. This includes Stick's "near" completion of a sexual hat trick one night.My only critiques are that it's naturally a little dated, with all the TV and film references circa 1982, and that at times there seems to be something in effect which I like to call reverse dramatic irony. The characters know more about what's going on than the reader, when it ought to be the other way around.
—J.M.
