25 September, 2001: King Suckerman
King Suckerman was a disappointment, particularly because I've liked other Pelecanos books. It felt like it was relying upon an intimacy that wasn't there and a trust that wasn't earned; it's all well and good to assume a backstory exists, but so much of the novel revolves around the friendship between Dimitri Karras, a Greek drug-dealer and layabout, and Marcus Clay, a black Vietnam vet and record store owner, that you need their utterly buy into the reality of their relationship. I didn't. Karras and Clay came off as characters in a pretty decent Tarantino knockoff: enjoyable enough and self-consistant, but more well-rounded clichés than living breathing characters. That's deadly in a book that relies on a dramatic shift in Karras' attitude; from a well-meaning coward, he becomes a standup guy who's willing to help Clay in a showdown with the books' villains, and if you never believe him as a full-fledged character in the first place. It leaves a hollow in the heart of the book.