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Elmore Leonard Dead at Age 87


RIPPA

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Leonard lived to 87, wrote roughly 50 novels, and has about the same amount of film credits. As far as well-known authors go, he's just below Stephen King and JK Rowling, and probably above even John Grisham and Tom Clancy. He lived an admirable life. I'm sad he's gone, but happy he was here for so long.

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Won't lie, all those back cover author photos since ... I want to say it was "Riding the Rap," hardcover ... where he'd be shown smoking, you could just tell, borrowed time man.  Fantastic author; rip, Dutch.

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Well, damn. I kinda worried that this would be coming soon after I heard about his stroke a little while back. I guess I've always had an awareness of him being an older guy, and one glance at his picture on the cover of any of his books would confirm that, but, man, his writing always so full of fun and vitality, you'd never know it by reading his books. So much life in that old guy.Needless to say, I was a big fan of his, and I'm extremely sad that I've read his last finished novel. With that in mind, since I have Raylan handy, I thought I'd pass along his last published words from the last page of said book (not spoiler-y in any significant way)...

She said, "Remember Young Frankenstein? The Monster gets it on with what's her name and she starts singing about finding the sweet mystery of life?" "What made you think of that?" "I don't know," Jackie said.

It was a terrifically funny way to end the book, and, I think, a fairly appropriate way to cap off his career, even if he didn't know that's what it was at the time.
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I've only read one Elmore Leonard novel, but I like the movies based on his work and absolutely love Justified.  The thing that always stood out to me about his work is the dialog.  The characters speak like down home geniuses that is endearing without being absurd.  Despite the fact that no one really speaks that way, his words were always right for the characters.  He was a really talented writer, who wrote the types of stories people wanted to read.  I wish there were more like him.

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Guest The Magnificent 7

Very talented writer, Detroit favorite son, and a good man.  He wrote entertaining books, real page turners.  My Grandfather went to U of D Jesuit with him and they remained friends.  His death today made me think about my Grandpa who I miss dearly.

 

RIP Mr. Leonard. 

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Get all of the books.

 

I met Elmore Leonard twice when I lived in Miami. Both times he was nothing less than a gentleman and by more accounts than mine had lots of time for aspiring young writers. I was a little star-struck and decided I wasn't going to monopolize his time by asking a million dumb questions, but the hell of it is he probably would have sat there all day and answered them.

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Does anyone have any recommendations on which Elmore Leonard books to read?  I read Pronto, which I really liked, but would like to know what else is worth picking up.

Well, if you liked Pronto, you could go ahead and read all of the Raylan Givens stories (Riding the Rap, Raylan, and the titular short story of the Fire in the Hole collection).Out of Sight is one of his classics. I also like the two Ernest Stickley novels, Swag and Stick.But really, yeah, just about all of them are good. He was amazingly consistent. And if it's set in Detroit or Miami, it's probably fried gold.
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