George P. Pelecanos: The Big Blowdown

By MICHELE HEWITSON

In this reissue of a 1996 novel, Pelecanos writes about cheap diners and broken-down bars, broken men and cheap women, broken bones and shattered dreams. "In between the dreams came blackness; in the blackness came naked screams."

The blackness is the seedier side of Washington DC, the way it looked throughout the early 30s and 40s. To Pete Karras, the son of Greek immigrants, a career in a protection racket looks like a stable way to make a living. He hadn't counted on a conscience.

You want redemption? You want the flawed guy with the big heart to win? Forget it. Pelecanos is not going to make it easy for you. He's just going to make the inevitable all the more heart-wrenching. The contradictions in our ideas of what makes a "good" human being are tested on every page.

The Big Blowdown lifts gangster/crime fiction beyond the genre. If you can crash into its conclusion without a tear you're harder than the hard men who cast sinister shadows across pages lit up with stark violence and tragedy.

Serpent's Tail

$31.95