easy75
01-20-2015, 03:32 PM
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto
Our story opens on Ray "Big Country" Cady, a bagman and enforcer for a New Orleans mobster, having a drink at a bar. He has just been informed by his doctor that he has terminal lung cancer. To add insult to injury, unbeknownst to Ray, later this very evening his boss has him all set up to be executed. Things don't go as planned, and because of a little unprofessional behavior on the part of his would-be assassins, they wind up dead, and Ray winds up on the run with a beautiful young prostitute in tow.
Cady is sort of a thinking man's thug, and like anyone who has just been informed that they have an expiration date, his mind wanders over the different chapters of his life. He came from a wretched childhood and made himself into a man to be feared. He has lived his life as someone who does what is necessary, and then pushes his own moral objections back into a small dark place in his mind. In light of his health, and the fact that he is being hunted by killers as cold blooded as himself, it seems that Cady has to try to come to terms with some of that past, and maybe even attempt to balance the books before he checks out for good. The story is told in an intentionally disjointed fashion with flashbacks, future events, and present tense events all working together to tug the story to it's conclusion at a run down beachfront motel in Galveston.
All in all a spectacular piece of work for the Noir/crime genre. Nic Pizzolatto's writing is darkly beautiful. His Gulf Coast world is sadly believable, and peopled with a cast of tragically comical characters : fringe motel dwellers, dealers, weirdos, crooks, addicts, and a general assortment of the downtrodden and depleted. Fans of True Detective will not be disappointed. Pizzolatto expertly builds tension into each scene. Cady and the rest are complex and interesting characters with hearts and souls, and even though they seem doomed from the start, you will want to root for them anyway.
7 1/2 stars out of 10.
Our story opens on Ray "Big Country" Cady, a bagman and enforcer for a New Orleans mobster, having a drink at a bar. He has just been informed by his doctor that he has terminal lung cancer. To add insult to injury, unbeknownst to Ray, later this very evening his boss has him all set up to be executed. Things don't go as planned, and because of a little unprofessional behavior on the part of his would-be assassins, they wind up dead, and Ray winds up on the run with a beautiful young prostitute in tow.
Cady is sort of a thinking man's thug, and like anyone who has just been informed that they have an expiration date, his mind wanders over the different chapters of his life. He came from a wretched childhood and made himself into a man to be feared. He has lived his life as someone who does what is necessary, and then pushes his own moral objections back into a small dark place in his mind. In light of his health, and the fact that he is being hunted by killers as cold blooded as himself, it seems that Cady has to try to come to terms with some of that past, and maybe even attempt to balance the books before he checks out for good. The story is told in an intentionally disjointed fashion with flashbacks, future events, and present tense events all working together to tug the story to it's conclusion at a run down beachfront motel in Galveston.
All in all a spectacular piece of work for the Noir/crime genre. Nic Pizzolatto's writing is darkly beautiful. His Gulf Coast world is sadly believable, and peopled with a cast of tragically comical characters : fringe motel dwellers, dealers, weirdos, crooks, addicts, and a general assortment of the downtrodden and depleted. Fans of True Detective will not be disappointed. Pizzolatto expertly builds tension into each scene. Cady and the rest are complex and interesting characters with hearts and souls, and even though they seem doomed from the start, you will want to root for them anyway.
7 1/2 stars out of 10.