Elmore Leonard is known for his crazy-good, realistic dialogue who’s also a skilled and imaginative storyteller able to create memorable characters and plots. But every great writer puts out a stinker every now and then and The Switch is without question a stinker! A pair of low-level criminals, Louis Gara and Ordell Robbie, decide to kidnap the wife of well-to-do real estate developer, Frank Dawson, and hold her hostage for $1million. There’s just one snag though: he doesn’t want her back. The premise sounds more like a throwaway joke or at best an idea for a short story, but for a nearly 200 page novel? No. The thin plot is streeeeeeeeeeetched by Leonard over scores of pages with precious little happening to validate its length. It takes a third of the novel before Mickey (Frank’s wife) is kidnapped, then at least another third before she’s let go over a misunderstanding, then the novel meanders at an excruciatingly slow pace until the blessed end. Does anything happen during the novel? Hardly anything - characters mostly just stand around and yammer about nothing. The absence of action would’ve been tolerable if the characters had been worth reading about but they weren’t. Our heroine, Mickey Dawson, is as bland a character as any Leonard has ever created. She has no personality and is a doormat of a wife, walked all over by her cartoonishly awful husband, Frank. Frank’s role is clear: he must be a bad guy and the reader must hate him. So he talks down to his wife, arguing over her about how much he drinks while he sloshes his way through another bottle of whiskies. You couldn’t get a more flat character portrayal than you do with Frank. Mickey on the other hand does her best to ignore it all and pretend everything’s fine, a tactic she employs throughout the story even when she’s being held hostage. And we’re supposed to be rooting for this Stepford Wife?Neither character could be said to be even remotely realistic. Why would Mickey put up with being treated so poorly when she clearly didn’t love Frank? And why, when she possesses no traits to make her interesting, would Leonard make her the main character? She is beyond boring to read about. Her arc is that at the end she finally stands up to him and demands he pay her a bit more alimony than he said he would. Woo - you go, girl! Louis and Ordell were easily the only two characters that made this novel tolerable. Leonard writes the pair with a clear fondness for their roguishness, and their friendship is believable. The only enjoyable moments in this novel are when the two are together and scheming, especially once things start going wrong. I don’t usually quote blurbs but I take issue with the one for The Switch because it’s misleading: “Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara hit it off in prison, where they were both doing time for grand theft auto. Now that they're out, they're joining forces for one big score. The plan is to kidnap the wife of a wealthy Detroit developer and hold her for ransom. But they didn't figure the lowlife husband wouldn't want his lady back. So it's time for Plan B and the opportunity to make a real killing - with the unlikely help of a beautiful, ticked-off housewife who's hungry for a large helping of sweet revenge.”That last sentence - “So it’s time for Plan B…” - implies that the plot moves from being one thing to another when it doesn’t. The whole novel is about the kidnapping and Leonard drags it out for the entire book. That last sentence of the blurb IS the ending of the novel. Leonard ends the whole thing on the implication that Mickey joins Louis and Ordell in taking her husband for what he’s worth. So, nice going blurb-writers, you gave away the final twist!The Switch has been made into a movie called Life of Crime starring Jennifer Aniston as Mickey, Tim Robbins as Frank, Mos Def as Ordell and John Hawkes as Louis - the latter two playing characters previously portrayed by Samuel L Jackson and Robert De Niro in Tarantino’s underrated Jackie Brown. I can’t say I’m encouraged to watch the movie after reading this piss-poor novel by an otherwise excellent writer. The Switch is a totally forgettable, completely uninspired crime novel featuring a cast of two-dimensional cutouts, a couple of realistic characters, and little else to justify reading it. Leonard is a fine writer though so, instead of The Switch, I highly recommend checking out his other books featuring his characters Chili Palmer or Raylan Givens to understand why he’s so beloved. Those books not only feature good dialogue and characters but also fun, fast-moving plots - unlike The Switch.
THE SWITCH. (1978). Elmore Leonard. ****.This is the last novel collected in the Library of America’s first volume in its three-volume set of Leonard’s books. These are: “Four Novels of the 1970s.” “The Switch” represents a departure for Leonard. It is not a caper gone wrong because of internal strife among the lowlifes, it is a turnaround in who is in charge of the caper. It’s all about the kidnapping of a typical suburban wife whose husband cares much more for his golf record at the club than he does about her. He makes a lot of money in ways that she knew nothing about, but word has leaked out to a couple of aspiring cons that the money he has accumulated in an off-shore account is significant. They plan to kidnap his wife and held her until they can convince the husband that one million dollars will have her returned to him. He’s a little slow in getting back to them, and in that time his wife realizes that her material worth to him is a little hazy at best. That awakening causes a complete reversal in her personality – or should I say a liberation of the personality that was always there under the “good wife” veneer. What happens next drives his wife to new heights of command, and suddenly the leadership of the caper changes hands. There’s a lot of black humor here, as well as a well-placed assessment of the social goings-on of business types of the time. Leonard also manages to bring these actors alive and allows them to get their messages across. Recommended.
What do You think about The Switch (2002)?
When they hatch a plot to kidnap a millionaire's wife and hold her for ransom, Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara over look one detail: what if the millionaire doesn't want her back?Ever wonder how the guys in Rum Punch (aka Jackie Brown) ended up where they were? This is the first caper starring Ordell and Louis and is a pretty slick piece of work, as befits a book by Elmore Leonard.As always with old Dutch, the dialogue is slicker than a water slide covered with Vaseline. Ordell and Louis, the criminals in the piece, are far more likable than their apparent mark, Mickey Dawson's asshole husband Frank. Once Mickey is kidnapped, the book really takes off. Ordell does some scheming with Melanie behind the backs of Louis and Frank and Mickey steps up.Still, I had a hard time rating this book. It was enjoyable but honestly, there isn't a lot to it. It has the standard Leonard hallmarks and was fun but it seemed really short and wasn't one of his heavy hitters. There wasn't a lot to distinguish it from the rest of the Leonard library. The Switch had it's moments but wasn't all that memorable. In fact, I'm already forgetting some of the characters' names. Three out of five stars.
—Dan Schwent
It's of course all about the characters, nobody (except Willeford) does them better than Elmore Leonard. Once again it was such a joy to follow their introductions (or audition as Leonard used to call this stage) and further developments. Felt like the author really liked them and had lots of fun with moving them around like figures on the chessboard, disposing them (Marshall) or introducing some new ones (Melanie). My only little criticism would be regarding Frank because he really is a bit too cartoonish and stereotyped asshole yuppie.Not Leonard's best work but still immensely enjoyable.
—Jure
I picked this up under the impression that the movie Ruthless People was based on it. The plots are vaguely similar, but there is otherwise no connection. Not Elmore Leonard at his best--but it had a lot of the characterization-through-dialogue that his fans (I'm one of them) admire. Also, as the title implies, it had a nice wrinkle at the end. There were good, non-cliched characters; but the villain of the piece was just a standard asshole without any redeeming qualities. In spite of Leonard's efforts, I never really understood why his wife married him in the first place, let alone put up with him for 20 years. But he finally got what he deserved, so a satisfying and entertaining read.
—Jon
