Jack Ryan is a minor criminal arrested for a fight at a pick-up baseball game. Local Justice of the Peace Mr Majestic is a baseball fan, and on the possibility hes opponent carried a knife, Jack is released with no charges laid. Ryan is a former baseball prospect who never quite made it to the pros. His bosses, now his ex bosses, at the melon plantation where he worked order Ryan to leave town. Mr. Majestic offers Ryan a job as handyman at his beach front cabanas. Ryan decides to stay. He takes the lead in a break in to steal wallets from a party with two accomplices, then takes the job with Mr. Majestic.He meets Nancy, a young mistress of a local millionaire. She is a master manipulator, perhaps even better than Jack. She tempts Jack into a robbery of her lover's payroll. But Jack is also tempted to live on the right side of the law. Then his partners in his last job return, and his former employer finds out he has not left town. The complications build in an easy-going fashion which matches Jack's personality and approach. The plot moves swiftly, while the emphasis is on character.This is an early Leonard crime story and one of his best. His writing shows the style he is known for, practiced in his westerns, but we also see the signs of a younger Leonard still developing his technique. The dialogue style is there, the basic yet swift plot, the scenarios and complications which build one on the other. There is also a reliance on long flashbacks as a method to develop character. It is not something I have noticed in other Leonard novels. It works fine here as we get long looks into both Jack's and Nancy's past. But it is something the later Leonard would not do. The only sub-plot that does not work is that of the young woman in the cabin who takes an apparent interest in Ryan and who he thinks wants to seduce him. That entire scenario falls flat.The various threads and characters come together very cleverly for the finale, which ends in a perhaps mildly ambiguous conclusion, like this sentence, but remains true to the characters and is in that very satisfying.
Chalk up another one...now done with Elmore Leonard's The Big Bounce. This is another book that just doesn't fit into my normal reading schedule. I've often seen Leonard's name & books listed as award winners from various years. I'd be surprised if I went back and looked at those lists and found this one had garnered any.The two positive things I can say about this book are 1. It's done. I don't have to read any more and 2. At least now I can say I've tried Leonard. And just like those raw oysters on crackers that I tried once upon a time just so I could say I had....I can now honestly say: I don't care for Leonard's style and I won't be having any more, thank you. Slimy on the way down. Down and dirty. Mean and gritty. Crazy young people on the edges of some kind of personality disorder--firing guns, breaking and entering, and shooting people for the heck of it. This is a book where you are not rooting for the main characters, and, by golly, I wanted them to get caught. Or possibly worse. The plot just doesn't grab me (actually, was there a plot & I just missed it?) and the violence and language seem a bit gratuitous to me. One star out of five on Visual Bookshelf.Someone on Visual Bookshelf(now defunct)mentioned that this isn't Leonard's strongest offering. All I can say is if his stronger offerings are anything like this one, then, as mentioned, I won't be having any more, thank you. And I don't believe I'll give any more a try just to find out. As I've said before, there are way too many books that I want to read and way too little time. No need for another detour. Actually, there's one more positive thing I can say: The book gave me another candle on my Birth Year Reading Challenge. So thank you, Elmore Leonard, for that.
What do You think about The Big Bounce (2003)?
I recently wrote a short review on The Hunted, another novel by Elmore Leonard. In that review, I suggested that you can never be certain of the eventual outcome. The Big Bounce is not exception to my rule. The protagonist, as usual, seems to be a guy with a past. And, unlike the former novel, this protagonist doesn’t seem to have the proverbial heart of gold. This isn’t the kind of character with whom I can relate and I never was quite sure of his motivation for performing any given action. I liked the cross and double-cross nature of the plot, but there were blocks of pages that I followed without any clue as to why the protagonist trusted someone he knew he couldn’t trust or attempted something that he knew shouldn’t be attempted. Although I finished the book, I never was satisfied that I did or ever could care about any of the characters except for one supporting character who seemed to trust the main character, regardless of evidence. I wasn’t happy with the ending and I don’t recommend the book.
—Johnny
in The Big Bounce we meet for the first time (as far as I know), on Frank Ryan. He's a petty criminal and drifter whose first caper in the novel is to sneak into a resort house and steal the wallets of vacationers who have left their pants and purses behind while they surf and sunbath. Pretty daring stuff.He wanders around the resort a bit more, looking for opportunities of one kind or another and ends up getting himself hired as a handyman by the resort's owner, Mister Majestyk (who later has a book of his own, who seems unrelated to this guy except by Elmore's name. 'Sup with that, Elmore?) Anyhow, his job gives him the opportunity to wander from cabin to cabin and cruise the beach looking for still more opportunities. Several present themselves, but the choicest is a luscious young piece who's currently headlining as the paramour of the swankiest beach house in the neighborhood. Her sugar daddy's away a lot, and she enjoys adventures even more than the next girl, so she sets her sights on Frank. She soon has him involved in a scheme to steal a huge bunch of cash. A job of a size and strategy he's never pulled off before.He's not sure he wants the job or wants her, but the lure is strong enough to keep him hanging around and see things out. I guess this qualifies as a noir novel since the protagonist is pretty much a bad guy, though a likable one who doesn't really hurt anyone. As if all that weren't enough, Frank's being pursued by some wetbacks on the other end of the income scale who think they were stiffed on the beach house caper. It's a slippery slope he's sliding down, and the ending's as unpredictable as any I've read from our classic crime writer.
—Carl Brush
I honestly wanted to give this book two and a half stars. this is a deeply unsatisfying book. Leonard is a fantastic writer and his skill shows in certain aspects of this work, but for the most part, this book just doesn't function well. I kept wondering why the characters were acting the way they were, there seemed to be no underlying motivations to any of them. THe plot didnt feel like a heist novel, it seemed to be filled with hot air and unsure as to where to go, never finding solid ground. I often felt bored and would put the book down, which made it all the more frustrating. To be honest I will read more of Leonard's work, something with a higher rating next time for certain. I wouldn't exactly call this novel a stinker, but it isn't a satisfying good read either, unless maybe you are a huge fan of Elmore and want to have read his complete body of works.
—J.C.
