ON ELMORE LEONARD

I wish I'd read more Elmore Leonard when I was a younger man. I didn't start reading him until I was in my mid to late thirties.

Sadly, I didn't read more of him back then because, when I was younger, I had the Beats like Kerouac, and the French like Camus and Celine, jammed way up my ass to care about anyone else. I was, in fact, full of shit and closed-minded. I lumped Elmore in with tons of writers I don’t like. Dull, formulaic authors, or what I once called, ‘books with raised letters.’ Elmore is so much more than those authors I don’t care for. I find his books to be a breath of fresh air, regardless of what year he published them.

Fun fact, Elmore received a degree in philosophy. And sure, on the surface Elmore's novels are entertaining. He was a master of dialogue and flow, but he also understood people better than most any author that I’ve ever read. Sure, his novels have sparked film adaptations like 'Jackie Brown,' 'Hombre,' 'Get Shorty,' 'Out of Sight,' and at least a dozen more, but that's because they are not only fun, but he understood how a character functions in a story without giving it a second thought. No wonder directors, actors, producers, rushed out to buy his work. There were no superheroes, no unstoppable cops, no bionic super worms. The characters were everyday people stuck in unusual but real situations. In other words, he didn't fucking judge them nor the reality of the world the characters lived in. I cannot stress the F-bomb in the previous sentence enough.

I think a lot of authors struggle with judgement. They start to judge their characters, and it’s a big, fat, coffin nail. As soon as you begin to judge a character, especially a villain or anti-hero, the story is garbage. I cannot recall ever feeling Elmore judged his characters. He allowed them to simply be themselves. Saviors are a dime a dozen. Honest people, even those labeled "bad" by society, are rare. His characters were most often always rare. Why so unique? He didn’t judge them. Elmore once said, "I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.” Yes, even so-called villains want to be happy. And it’s impossible for them to ever find their brand of happiness if the author begins to judge them.

I mention his degree in philosophy, also his early work being an ad man, and being in the Navy during WW2, because all those things tossed into a stew helped him recognize people's needs and what they have to offer in return. It's a perfect storm of discovering how people both live and work. There's a reason he's referred to as "The Dickens of Detroit,” a name he disliked. Not because it's cute (maybe it is) but Dickens himself understood his people and time better than most, even if I find Dickens to be incredibly dry and dull, I cannot take that away from him.

Underneath the entertainment part of Elmore’s work there are tiny hints, realities of existentialism, nihilism and the dread that often come along with those schools of thought. However, he wasn't going to give you any of those things on a platter. It's there, hidden in the words of the characters. In the actions, the fears, the cons, the rage, the greed. That's how people function in life, often with moments of dread hidden underneath their actions, anxieties, and words. Elmore supplied plenty of dread, but like in any day-to-day life, He also supplied humor, conversation, violence, lust, love, and truth.

I'll die on this hill: Elmore Leonard is as important to the American literary canon as Jack London, Mark Twain, Papa Hemingway, James Baldwin, Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, Cormac McCarthy, Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, et cetera. Sadly, he is still viewed as a crime and western fiction writer only, and not that it’s a terrible thing in itself, but he was much more than the labels. When reading him I sometimes find myself saying things like, "nice Sartre moment there, Elmore." It's surprising and neat to find those little eggs tucked into his characters, but like I said, he wasn't going to hand you those easter eggs on a fancy platter. It's all part of the human condition to act naturally to the surroundings that create thoughts and shape us as people. He understood it without trying to understand it.

If he was still alive and I told him all of what I wrote, he'd probably laugh at me, because the story, the rich characters, humor, the violence, the dialogue were more important to him. But those eggs are there in black and white, and it's important to know, understand, and feel those things too.

Don't take my word for it:

"Wonderful things can happen... when you plant seeds of distrust in a garden of assholes.”

― Elmore Leonard.

FRANK REARDON was born in 1974 in Boston, Massachusetts, and currently lives in Charlotte, NC. Frank has published short stories in STAND, BULL FICTION, TOUGH CRIME, COWBOY JAMBOREE, and many other journals, anthologies, reviews. He's also published poetry in reviews, journals and online zines, as well as five poetry collections. His first poetry collection, 'Interstate Chokehold,' was published by NeoPoiesis Press in 2009 as well as his second poetry collection 'Nirvana Haymaker' in 2012. His third poetry collection 'Blood Music' was published by Punk Hostage Press in 2013. In 2019 he published a collection with Blue Horse, 'Loud Love on The Sevens and Elevens.' Frank is currently working on a nonfiction column for Hobart, more short fiction, and will have a short story collection finished later in 2024.