Reviews

The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos

lilkatesbooknook's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

oedipa_maas's review

3.0

Pretty straight-forward noir. A little predictable, but enjoyable in a one-day read kind of way.

jakewritesbooks's review against another edition

4.0

Like George Pelecanos, I've transitioned from my roaring twenties phase of parties and Cool Guy mystery novels to my thirties phase of maturity and focus. This is a good historical tale: part bildungsroman, part small-scale gangster fable, part ode to post-war DC. I had an idea of what was coming given my knowledge of the children/grandchildren in the Stefanos and Karras clans but the ending still impacted me and it reminded me how Pelecanos is not a sentimental writer. Whatever dirtbag stuff he did in his 20s, he has no desire to romanticize it. One of my favorites of his. 

heyhawk's review

4.0

4.5

Straight noir set in the 40s and 50s featuring the parents and grandparents of some of the characters in my favorite Pelecanos novel I've read so far, The Sweet Forever. This is the first in the DC quartet.

Like Ellroy's LA Quartet this doesn't flinch. Unlike Ellroy, Pelecanos lets in the occasional ray of light, which seems more honest. It's the tone of The Wire filtered through a Bogart movie. Recommended.

thomasroche's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this richly textured noirish crime novel set in the Greek community of Washington DC in the immediate postwar era. I came to it because I was so frustrated with James Ellroy's "Perfidia," and Pelecanos's DC Quartet seems to be one of the few crime series at all similar or related to Ellroy's LA Quartet. Unfortunately, from what I can tell they're not even remotely similar. The two authors have styles so unbelievably different it's pretty much impossible to compare them. Nonetheless, I loved The Big Blowdown's details about Greek-American culture, and the sights and smells of DC at the time. Sometimes Pelecanos indulges his history-nerd pop culture trivia obsession a little too deeply, but ultimately it all comes out in the wash. This is a stupendously enjoyable and yet memorably melancholy book, extremely readable and filled with crystalline moments.

ponyonmyboat's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

northstar's review against another edition

4.0

It took me a while to get into this novel but I ended up liking it as well as any of his Nick Stefanos books, which I read last year. Pelecanos tells a good, if violent, story but he also builds strong characters. Center to this story is Pete Karras, a WWII veteran who mixes with low-level mobsters after he returns from the Pacific and ends up with a bum leg and a job at a cafe. His efforts to save a co-worker's sister and protect his boss from gangsters leads him right back to the mob and an old friend he thought he left behind. If you've never read Pelecanos, start with this one or A Firing Offense--he writes in trilogies and tetralogies, with overlapping characters. Get ready for lots of drugs and liquor, heavy but plot-driven violence and unforgettable views of Washington, DC.

francomega's review against another edition

4.0

Exactly what I was hoping from Pelecanos, whose writing is so good on The Wire and Treme. This is the first book in his D.C. Quartet. Great attention to detail--really captured the sounds and feel of 1940s DC (I assume?). Gritty, witty, noir-y fun.