The Sunday Haul

One major regret about last Sunday that still hasn’t entirely left me is about a book I did not pick up at Abids. I had seen a brand new copy of an Elmore Leonard title lying in a heap of books selling for only twenty rupees. I picked it up and was looking at it and wondering whether to buy it or not. I had almost decided on buying it when my eleven year old kid asked me if I was planning to buy the book when I had three copies of the same title lying at home. I was surprised he remembered the name ‘Elmore Leonard’, the violet colored cover with the title ‘BANDITS.' I had to put it back into the heap, of course.

Back home in the evening, still full of regret, I spotted ‘Unknown Man 89’ that I remembered not having read. What a pity, I said to myself, not finding the time to read Elmore Leonard. Of course, only the other week I had read ‘Swag’ and had also written about the book here. No one who reads an Elmore Leonard title can resist not reading another so I started his ‘Unknown Man 89’ right away and finished it two days later, that is, yesterday afternoon. I was glad I had found it and more glad that I had read it.

UKM 89 is first rate crime fiction. It is another crackling read that zips ahead making you turn the pages eagerly for more of the action, the dialogue and the witty lines. UKM 89 is a novel about Ryan, a process server who gets the better of a con man. Ryan is a cool guy (in Elmore Leonard’s books they are always cool dudes scorching the pages with their lines) who serves summons and legal stuff to people he traces out. He has a friend, Dick Speed who is a cop who helps him out now and then especially in the end. Ryan gets a contract to trace out someone who’s is in for a big windfall provided he agrees to sign an agreement. Ryan goes in search of the guy and gets entangled in some major twists that leave you gasping. The guy he is searching for is dead and the guy who wanted to trace him out is an ex-con, a smooth talking guy called Perez with a burly sidekick, Raymond, who does all the arm twisting on Perez’s behalf. Ryan falls in love with the dead man’s widow (Denise) and things get complicated as Ryan tries to outwit Perez at his own game. In the end Raymond is shot dead in an action scene that is one of the best I have ever read. UKM 89 is the sort of book that can be written by the one and only Elmore Leonard, who is truly a master.

After finishing UKM 89 I wished, like always, I could learn to write from such a master. I believe that the truly successful and accomplished masters are the ones who give out the secrets of their success. In short they do not hesitate to teach those who want to learn something from them. In an interview in ‘Writer’s Handbook 2002’ Elmore Leonard says that paragraphing is extremely important to keep the flow of the story. He says that he learnt the trick of making dialogue pull along the story. There are some more gems of advice in another article of his that I read in ‘Writers on Writing’ Volume II. This same article has been expanded in the form of a book ‘Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing that I have not been able to locate.

Anyway, last Sunday I happened to find Joseph Wambaugh’s ‘Lines and Shadows’, his second non-fiction book after ‘The Onion Field’ that I remember reading a long time back. I had also read his ‘The Choirboys’ which was my first Wambaugh book and I was mighty impressed by his writing. Wambaugh hasn’t disappointed in ‘Lines and Shadows’ which can be described as ‘searing’ and ‘visceral’ because it gets at your guts if the first chapter is anything to go by. I had thought I would read just the first chapter and read the rest of the book again sometime later when I had the time. But after reading a few pages I have decided to read the rest of the book even if the revision of my novel is delayed a couple of days.