King Suckerman

Starred review from July 31, 1997
Taking its name from a fictional blaxploitation film attended by many of its characters, the latest from acclaimed D.C, noir writer. Pelecano centers on an interracial friendship, circa 1976, between a Greek proto-slacker, the pot-dealing Dimitri Karras, and his partner in crime, a black Vietnam veteran and record store-owner named Marcus Clay. Far more sympathetic (and less criminal) than your run-of-the-mill pulp heroes, these two find themselves embroiled in this blood-soaked story largely by accident after they walk into the midst of a high-tension drug deal and leave with a new set of very dangerous enemies. The baddest of the baddies is Wilton Cooper, a character clearly meant to evoke a blaxploitation hero, the difference being that Cooper turns out to be a full-blown psycho in cool cat's clothing. Packed as the novel is with Pelecanos's usual, meticulous details of pop life in middle- and working-class Washington, comparisons to Pulp Fiction are inevitable. But Pelecanos is more than merely slick; there's heart behind the Tarantino-esque ephemera, and these details carry with them the sadness of a city teetering on the brink of its last great decline into violence and segregation. The narrative itself is deft if unsurprising, and the dialogue is unfailingly true to the lives it lays bare. In fact, many of the novel's most engaging scenes occur when Pelecanos focuses instead on Dimitri's character, his complex friendship with Marcus and the city that lies so convincingly behind them.

August 1, 1997
Cheech and Chong meet Pulp Fiction in a retro novel of Seventies drug culture. Small-time pot dealer Dimitri Karras and record-store owner Marcus Clay stumble into the wrong warehouse looking for weed and pocket some hot cash in the bargain. They are pursued by a gang of trigger-crazed lowlifes more concerned with savoring the taste of Kools and death than recovering their money. Dimitri slowly begins to realize that he's wasted many years dealing to kids and getting high. He proves his desire for redemption to Marcus by participating in a rooftop showdown with the Wilton Cooper gang. Few other characters here show potential for growth or transformation, but Pelecanos (The Big Blowdown, LJ 4/15/96) has an ear for the jivey talk of the era. This noir thriller may find a limited audience with baby boomers or fans of the author's well-received Nick Stefanos series.--Susan A. Zappia, Maricopa Cty. Lib. Dist., Phoenix

Starred review from August 1, 1997
A fictional homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s? Well, yes, but hard-boiled master Pelecanos' latest is much more. Combining the eccentric flash of "Pulp Fiction," the noir soul of David Goodis, and the idiosyncratic heart of Elmore Leonard, this wildly violent crime novel effectively evokes the comic-book heroics of the "Superfly" era while at the same time sucker punching us with the humanity at its core. The story takes place during the Bicentennial celebration in Washington, D.C., and has as its linchpin that familiar crime-plot device: the drug deal gone bad. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Vietnam vet and record-store owner Marcus Clay and his friend, small-time dealer Dimitri Karras, find themselves in possession of a large sum of cash belonging to a movie-loving, psychopathic ex-con and a shotgun-toting, Afro-wearing "white-boy-wanna-be-black-boy cracker." With James Brown and Jimi Hendrix wailing in the background, Marcus and Dimitri try to avoid the inevitable confrontation, which comes, "Godfather"-like, as the Fourth of July fireworks erupt on the Mall. Pelecanos captures the galvanizing energy that the "Superfly" image generates in his characters, both black and white, both over the edge and just this side of it, but he also reveals the desperation and even the naked fear that often lurk beneath the strut. Having reluctantly orchestrated and then survived the climactic showdown, Marcus leaves the scene like a black Clint Eastwood at the end of "The Unforgiven," craving only the solace of ordinary life. ((Reviewed Aug. 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)