Although I am a huge fan of FX’s “Justified” series, I’m not really an avid fiction reader and never gave Elmore Leonard’s books much thought. Leonard’s passing in 2013 certainly revealed the universal respect and appeal people had for his work and made me wonder what I was missing. I chose WHEN THE WOMEN COME OUT TO DANCE mainly because it was a published before the “Justified” series and free of the show’s hype … just a book with 9 short stories; one which happens to be the basis for the incredible television series. I didn’t even reach the “Justified” story before I fully understood the attraction to Leonard’s story-telling.
Each chapter represents one story and range from 5 to 50+ pages. “Fire in the Hole” is the one I really wanted to read as it introduces the world to the cool, calm and deadly Raylan Givens and his arch-nemesis, life-long criminal Boyd Crowder. It’s not “Justified” in a nutshell, but merely the first episode of the series (with a different outcome). If anything, the book remarkably confirms how dead-on the series presents Leonard’s vision … both the storyline and the characters. While I certainly enjoyed that particular story, I found most of the others to be better. Leonard had a knack of being able paint an elaborate tableau with relatively few words that gets readers involved. Real page-turners filled with drama, suspense and a variety of interesting characters of all calibers (good and bad). One of the reasons I really don’t enjoy fiction is verbosity, but Leonard’s stories never become mired in words, they all roll smoothly and at a decent pace. I found myself immersed in each and every chapter and refused to part from the book until I’d finished the story I’d started. Another enjoyable factor is that each chapter presents readers with a change-up (and puns aside, “Chickasaw Charlie Hoke” was one of my favorites) in terms of theme, mood and era (some stories are current, some not). The longer chapters (“Karen Makes Out”, “Fire in the Hole” and “Tenkiller”) take time to develop, but build excitement along the way and certainly deliver in the end.
WHEN THE WOMEN COME OUT TO DANCE proved to be the perfect appetizer for me to start a steady diet of Elmore Leonard books … I’m hooked.
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F H.
The short stories are delight. Colourful characters and dialogue with a twist
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2017