Reviews

Miami Blues by Elmore Leonard, Charles Willeford

wegmarken2006's review against another edition

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funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

dwhite1174's review against another edition

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funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

pandasekh's review

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4.0

Altre recensioni sul mio blog: https://artedellalettura.it

Ho acquistato Miami Blues semplicemente perché la copertina mi attirava parecchio, quindi ho iniziato la lettura senza saperne molto. Si tratta di un thriller noir ambientato in una Miami dove il degrado e la criminalità la fanno da padrone. Alberghi sporchi e malconci, furti a ogni angolo, poliziotti corrotti, tutte le descrizioni riescono benissimo a creare sconforto e disagio nel lettore.
Miami Blues è un libro molto scorrevole e leggero, in molti aspetti pare scritto da Bukowski.

Trama
Non esiste una vera e propria trama di fondo. Il libro segue due punti di vista: quello di un pluriomicida psicopatico appena rilasciato di prigione, Freddie Frenger, e quello di un detective in una situazione patetica e triste, Hoke Moseley. Freddie inizierà una nuova vita sregolata a Miami e la sua strada incrocerà quella del detective Moseley più volte, fino all'incontro finale. La trama, sempre che così si possa definire, non è nulla di eclatante.

Ho trovato solo una grave imperfezione a pagina 102: Susan Waggoner (la ragazza di Freddie) parla con l’ispettore Hoke e, parlando del suo ex lavoro, chiama Freddie col suo nome. L’ispettore però lo conosce solo come Ramon Mendez Junior, ma non fa una piega.

Personaggi
I due protagonisti sono ben caratterizzati, anche se molta attenzione è stata data più a Freddie che al detective. Considerato che il libro dovrebbe avere come protagonista solo il detective (e così per tutta la tetralogia), questa cosa mi ha lasciato un po' perplesso. Rispetto al detective, Freddie è caratterizzato molto meglio e gli sono dedicate molte più pagine.

I co-protagonisti sono anch'essi ben definiti e differenti tra loro.


Edizione
Copertina molto bella, edizione economica ma senza nessun problema. La copertina rimane piegata molto facilmente, ma non è grave.


Conclusioni
Un libro che va preso per quello che è: una leggera storia fortemente noir e violenta, senza troppe pretese. Avrei preferito più dettagli sul detective Hoke Moseley, ma non è un grave problema in quanto Freddie è comunque un personaggio molto interessante e che riesce a portare avanti il libro da solo.

daniel_wood's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bundy23's review against another edition

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5.0

Freddy unwrapped the bath sheet and dropped it on the floor. He probed her pregreased vagina with the first three fingers of his right hand. He shook his head and frowned.

"Not enough friction there for me," he said. "I'm used to boys, you see. Do you take it in the ass?"


Buckle up children, we're in for a hell of a ride ;-)

nickdleblanc's review against another edition

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4.0

My first author re-read of the year due to a delay in shipping times for a few books I had ordered. A friend of mine called out an insecurity of mine that I am not reading enough woman and trans authors so it feels kind of funny to post another male author—and Willeford is a particularly masculine writer—knowing that I will be reading more women but haven’t received the shipment yet. Anyhow, this is a great book, I would love to adapt it into a film. It’s very funny, the prose gives you some insight into the characters. It’s got the tone of Altman’s The Long Goodbye, Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and even bits of Uncut Gems—in the sense that the villain is on a nonstop path of self destruction pushing con after con with no need game in sight and the hero isn’t a much better person. Willeford writes a different kind of crime book, more of a character study where we see a lot of the characters being people, not just playing cat and mouse. He’s an economical writer, doing a lot with relatively spare language and effectively plays with noir tropes like giving the characters doses of casual misogyny in the right places to comment on what type of person that character is. Willeford is a fantastic easy read for anyone who likes detective/crime/noir fiction. I’ll probably check the other books out in this series, so don’t be surprised if his name reappears a few more times throughout this year of reading. -
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tl;dr—Great, easy reading crime fiction that is better than it has any right to be. Big recommend.

zachwerb's review against another edition

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4.0

solid, fun read.

unfoldingdrama's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

perkisize's review against another edition

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4.0

Loving Willeford so far. Will definitely finish the Hole Mosely books

jakewritesbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

(4.5) Now this is how you write a crime novel! Take an inept detective with a drinking problem and pit him against a down-on-his-luck con in the stupidest cat-and-mouse game ever. Throw in a south Florida setting and Voila! Magic. A hilarious 200 pages that doesn’t waste a word or a moment. I’ve been sleeping on Charles Willeford for far too long. I’m gonna have to read the rest of his catalogue.