LaBrava | Elmore Leonard

This episode of Books for Men features LaBrava by Elmore Leonard. A crime novel set in Miami about an ex-secret service agent slash photographer-extraordinaire who falls for the starlet he loved as a kid, meanwhile, she's mixed up in a shady scheme with a rent-a-cop and a Cuban gangster. It’s Leonard, a master, at his best. Listen for more!

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Welcome back, the Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week we are going to be finishing up the year, which is pretty crazy, right? This time has flown by. I'm really excited to bring the podcast into 2023. But before we do that, we have one more book, and this is going to be the last book of the month of some of my most influential authors, or my favorite authors, however, you want to classify it. Today's book is none other than LaBrava by Elmore Leonard, and he's another one of those guys who after I read him, everything was different for me. And I only say that because when I first picked up an Elmore Leonard book, I read it, and for the very first time, I think ever while reading fiction, I said to myself, this just makes sense.

(01:11)

This just feels right to me. The style in which it was written, the dialogue, the characters. It's almost like I knew these people and I know that that will sound weird to some people who might have read some Elmore Leonard novels before or know anything about any of the stories because they're all based around crooks and morally ambiguous people. But I don't mean it like I know criminals. I just mean it like the oi or the style of which they talk and how they act and the things that make sense to them in their heads. It all kind of felt real to me in a way that no other novel ever had before. And I can imagine that I'm not the only person that shares that sediment given how massively successful Elmore Leonard was as a novelist, which is why for me, on a personal level, no matter how outlandish some of his plots may seem to get and believe me, they do get a little crazy at times.

(02:09)

They all still feel very grounded in reality. Like this could happen or this is happening. It just makes sense. And that's really a testament to him because he does a really good job at a lot of things. But one thing he does super well is that he gives you the motivation of these characters. So why these characters are doing what they're doing, both the protagonists, the antagonists, and all the characters involved, and he does it in a really, really confined set of words. He keeps that story moving along, and that's a quality that I just absolutely love. There's no unnecessary exposition. There's no fat. It just steamrolls along the book. And I know that that's completely personal, and there are a lot of people who want a lot more exposition and a lot more description, but if you are one of those people, you're probably not going to like Elmore Leonard.

(03:08)

And it's funny, that's why when I read sometimes blurbs for new books that are authors who are billed as like Elmore Leonard or similar to Elmore Leonard, I will almost always pick up that book. And I will say that nine out of 10 times I always leave disappointed with not the author because every author has their own style, and a lot of them are great and fun and different, but with the comparison because more times than not, at least in modern novels, and at least in my opinion, they're very fatty or very wordy. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with this. It's just something that Elmore Leonard wasn't. And so it sometimes leaves me thinking, how much does this person who is actually comparing this author to Elmore Leonard actually know Elmore Leonard? Or they just know that he's a great crime novelist and they know he is a great dialogue, or they know that he writes with gritty realism with slight humor or whatever it is.

(04:11)

But stylistically, there's something very distinct about the lean nature of the way Elmore Leonard writes. And it's sort of unmistakable, especially when you combine it with that very distinct dialogue that he came to be known for. And to be honest, I think it was that quality along with the stories, obviously, that allowed for so many of his novels to be turned into movies or shows. So he wrote probably, I don't know, 50, 60 novels in his career, and probably close to half were turned into films or TV shows, a lot of stuff that you've probably seen before. And you don't even realize that it was an Elmore Leonard novel at first, like 3:10 to Yuma, which was done several times. So Elmore Leonard actually started his writing career writing westerns and then moved into the crime genre. And so some of the crime movies that you might recognize are Get Shorty with John Travolta or Out Of Sight with George Clooney.

(05:10)

I mean, there's tons and tons. Even Tarantino did an Elmore Leonard novel, but he changed the name for the film. So the Elmore Leonard novel was Rum Punch, and the Tarantino film was Jackie Brown, but that's another one. I mean, or even recently, there was a TV show on I think FX called Justified that was based on an Elmore Leonard character, Rayland Givens. So it goes on and on and on. There are tons of examples. Like I said, probably half or more of his books were made into shows or movies. It's funny, if you listen to Elmore Leonard talk about this, he's usually, or usually was less than impressed with the adaptations of his novels into film. And he's notoriously been outspoken about the film industry and some of the silliness of it. And that's actually the premise or the idea behind Get Shorty a movie and story that I already mentioned.

(06:08)

Anyway, with that being said, let's pivot into today's book. I think this is a good spot to do that. Why? Because interestingly, this book was never adapted into a TV show or a film, but to me, it's perhaps his best novel and it is 400 pages or so. So it's not a super short novel, and some of his novels are much shorter than this. But at 400, that's a pretty good size novel. It was originally published in 1983 and then republished in 2012. I just love this book for so many reasons. One, it has the audacity to start with dialogue, so it starts with a quotation of somebody saying something. And I just love that so much because it drops you right into the scene and you're pulled right in. Now, I know, again, this is a point of contention. Some people want to know more about a character or have a little bit of exposition before they're pulled right in.

(07:12)

Starting with a quotation or dialogue is a little risky. But again, I think that this is just another statement on the style of Elmore Leonard. How does he write what you're going to experience with this author? Lean, fast. You're not going to have all this extra description going on. This book is a great, great example of that. Even at 400 pages, it just pipes right along and it starts you off in that mode, right from the very first sentence. I love that. So, so much. So what is this book actually about? Well, it takes place in Miami and it features an ex-secret service and photographer extraordinaire, Joe LaBrava. He falls for a starlet or a movie star who he loved as a kid. But what he quickly learns is that she's mixed up in this shady scheme with rent-a-cop and this Cuban gangster.

(08:09)

And obviously, he gets intertwined and what happens and how does everything unfold? It's got sex, it's got violence, it's got everything that you want in a hard-boiled, edgy, crime fiction novel, right? But it cuts that with a little bit of humor, and it has the X-factor. It's written by Elmore Leonard, which is an experience all to itself, at least in my opinion. So obviously I think very highly of him, and I don't want to share too much more about the actual plot because that's the least interesting part of these, at least to me. I think I've probably said that a few times. And I also don't want to ruin the book for you because it's one that I definitely think you should read and I want you to read. Let's just put it this way. I saved a really good book for the last book of 2022, so I hope you pick it up.

(09:03)

And before I wrap up this episode, I did just want to pull it all the way back to the beginning. And I spoke a lot about the style of Elmore Leonard and my opinions of his technique and his craft and all of that. And I always want to encourage everybody in all of these episodes to read the book or go read more of his work, and then you can either agree or disagree with me. And that is the beauty of the world we live in. And I love differing opinions. I love people who will share those differing opinions and have some conviction behind them. And I want to hopefully inspire you to do that through this podcast. And if you want to hear from the horse's mouth, there are plenty of video interviews and pieces written about Elmore Leonard. He even has the Elmore Leonard 10 Rules for Writing in which I actually have a coffee mug with them printed on the side, which I use as my pencil and pen and highlighter holder on my desk.

(10:06)

Perhaps my favorite rule is “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” He reiterates in the next rule, “Which is my most important rule is the one that sums up the last rule. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” And so yeah, they're funny, they're whimsical, but there is a silver lining, or I should say a lot of truth baked into them as well, and that's what makes them so great. So go check 'em out if you want. All right, so that's all I've got. This was the last episode of 2022 or the last book of 2022, I should say. I will still be doing the December recap episode, which will probably come out on the last day of the month, or I might just bundle it with the year-end recap, which I'm planning to release on the first Monday in January, which is a week from today.

(10:57)

So I don't know, I haven't decided yet. This is the beauty of running your own show. You could do whatever you want. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I hope you enjoyed all of 2022, and you found maybe a book that you perhaps wouldn't have read otherwise, or maybe you just enjoyed listening to these episodes. If you do, I want to encourage you as always, to please share it with friends, family members, and other people who you think might like it. Word of mouth is everything when you're trying to raise awareness around something. And with this show specifically, it's to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. And we're going to need women just as much as we need men to do that. So please share with everybody. And of course, if you want to double down on that, you can by rating, subscribing, or reviewing on whatever podcast platform you'll listen to this on.

(11:48)

And don't forget, for more information, you could visit books for men.org where you can also sign up for the monthly newsletter, which is just a roundup of all the books and authors that you hear on the podcast. Actually, I'm wrong. It's not just those books. I add two to three additional books at the end of each newsletter as well. I forgot to include that. I typically do forget to include that at the end of all these shows. And I was reminded that I have to include that because that's an important thing, right? You get an extra two to three books that I read in real-time that month. So they're not books that are featured on in the show, but they're definitely books that you may enjoy reading, non-fiction and fiction. So again, if you're interested in the newsletter, you could sign up at BooksforMen.org.