Poster Boy George

 

Each new book release by crime fiction author George Pelecanos becomes fodder for a media frenzy of sorts, no less the case with his latest novel, Turnaround. Both Janet Maslin and Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times reviewed the book, as did the Chicago Sun Times, among others. Maslin writes "He tells a tight, suspenseful story. And he packs enough of a wallop to put The Turnaround on an express bus of its own." Randy Michael Signor of the Sun Times waxes more rhapsodically, "His truth is love-based and whispers secrets in your ear — but only if you slow down your eyes so your ear hears the words, catches the beat, rides the rhythms and treats you, the reader, with the gift of a tale, the hearing of which will lift your spirit and cause you to say aloud, 'Damn, I've gone to heaven and heard the angels.'"

Then there are the tie-ins:  an interview with The Guardian, in which he notes that "The New York Times didn't review any of my books until my seventh novel. And then I got one paragraph." Was it a favourable write-up? "It was good," he admits. "But it was still a paragraph."

The Philadephia City Paper also snared Pelecanos for an interview. He was asked about a new book by Willy Vlautin called Northline, which he likes, saying "That falls into that category [what he calls proletariat noir], because publishers today don't really want those books. They want high-concept, something with a lot of twists. And Northline to me was one of the best books I'd read in years — and I read a lot of books. What impressed me was that he wrote this very small story about this woman's journey about how these small kindnesses collectively lifted her up. And that's the kind of books I admire."

The Washington City Paper printed a Pelecanos Dictionary, which Sarah Weinman discusses aptly in her blog.

And the New York Times (boy are THEY making up for lost time, George), included a "Living With Music: Playlist" of tunes the author is listening to these days. Play on!