The Big Blowdown (D.C. Quartet Series #1)

by George Pelecanos

Overview

Powerfully told, elegantly wrought, George P. Pelecanos's The Big Blowdown is a knockout.

Washington DC, 1946. For Joey Recevo and Pete Karras, two kids from one of Washington's rougher neighborhoods, the easiest work to find after the War is all criminal---providing a little muscle for a local boss. But Karris is soft on his fellow immigrants, and the boss can't let his mob get soft, so one of his boys gives Karras a painful lesson.

Three years later, it's the same mob that figures big Nick Stefanos's grill needs protection---and this decision will once again bring Joey and Pete face-to-face. In this final confrontation, the two of them will find the meaning of friendship, the heart of honor, and the cost of both.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312242916
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/24/1999
Series:	D.C. Quartet Series , #1
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

George P. Pelecanos is the author of several novels, including Nick's Trip, The Sweet Forever, King Suckerman, and Shame the Devil. He lives and works in the Washington, D.C., environs.

Hometown:

Silver Spring, Maryland

Date of Birth:

February 18, 1957

Place of Birth:

Washington, D.C.

Education:

B.A., University of Maryland at College Park, 1980

Website:

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/georgepelecanos/

Editorial Reviews

He is among the finest ten or twelve novelists working in the U.S. today. . . . [a] Balzacian figure so intent upon rendering this nation's whole ramshackle, impossible urban life over the past half-century.” —James Sallis, from his introduction

“Pelecanos writes hard-boiled prose full of music and pain, like he just might be in charge of saving his characters' souls. The Big Blowdown is his ‘Once Upon a Time in D.C.'—-a big book with drive and savagery, and elegance too.” —Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

“A charged page-turner . . . With stylistic panache and forceful conviction, Pelecanos delivers a darkly powerful story of the American city.” —Publishers Weekly [starred review]

“Pelecanos's books get into your blood like a shot and a beer after a third shift. Definitely my favorite writer working today.” —Peter Farrelly, author of Outside Providence

“A snazzy Lincoln Zephyr of a novel.” —Les Whitten, Washington Post Book World

“Bold and broad-shouldered, a crime epic filled with passionate characters and the gritty life of the street. . . . Pelecanos lifted me from my chair and hurled me right into the mean D.C. streets of the 1950s. Bravo!” —T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Blue Hour

“One of those writers whose books I would never miss.” —Harlan Ellison, author of Mephisto in Onyx

“To miss out on Pelecanos would be criminal.” —Barry Gifford, author of Wild at Heart

From the Publisher

Pelecanos follows four mysteries—three about D.C. appliance salesman/barman Nick Stefanos (Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, 1995, etc.)—with this crossover prequel showing the warmly seamy side of Nick's Grill back in 1949.

Though Nick's Grill provides the turf his heroes can battle over, Nick himself takes a backseat to three even scrappier types. There's Joe Recevo, a bagman for a suave, brutal boss named Burke (a Richard Conte role). There's Peter Karras, Recevo's childhood friend, who followed him into Burke's gang but got carried out on Burke-crippled legs when he drew the line at shaking down an old friend of Karras's hated father. And there's Michael Florek, an innocent who's climbed down from the Pennsylvania hills in search of his sister Lola, a hophead whore now spreading her legs in the nation's capital as a nightmare john stalks the fringes of the story cutting up prostitutes—without causing Karras's friend Jimmy Boyle, a D.C. cop so hot for his gold shield that he's getting hooked on uppers, a single sleepless night. Pelecanos fills his bars with hot, smoky music and his streets with colorful lowlifes, but he lingers so lovingly over the tough childhood memories Karras and Recevo share, their wartime traumas, and their present affairs—even though Karras is respectably married to his first love, he can't keep his hands off census taker Vera Gardner, who worries all the time about the Bomb—that you can tell early on where this story is heading: toward a showdown over Nick's, when Burke picks his place to lead the block in paying protection money, and Nick digs in his heels, and Karras and Recevo face off one last time.

A workmanlike, atmospheric retro noir—Once Upon a Time in America meets The Big Combo. If it's not quite as original or resonant as the Big Book Pelecanos seems to have had in mind, you'll still find yourself feeling everything you're supposed to about the familiar demi-heroic types and their grim postwar world.

Kirkus Reviews