Freaky Deaky, by Elmore Leonard. Great book, and now a movie due in 2012!

Paperbacks have always fascinated me.  I guess if you are word-smithing, this is an unavoidable sickness.  

   You troll the racks for cheap used ones.  You collect, you read.  You find the strange comfort in the pulp, pulp that has usually started to deteriorate long before you got your hands on it.  Many hands have been on it before.  On the other side of the spectrum, you get the slick sheen gloss of buying a New One.  But there is something about the used ones that makes them better.  Sometimes, you find dedications, signatures.  Pencil notes in the margins.  By way of example, the Student of Great Writing and Literature asking  Big Questions like "I wonder why Harry Crews used the Faulkner imagery  (specifically, the primary character wears a Faulkner T-shirt) so much in 'Karate Is A Thing of The Spirit'?

Man, that book was sexy as shit.  Especially for fledgling, teen age karate/literature devotees.  Serious Boner Time<tm>.  To have been in Florida at that time, right?  But I have the new improved model, living as I do as a Florida writer, and, in a way, I owe some of it to Harry Crews.  There is so much depth in this book:  swimming pool depth--Crews taking a tragedy and working it into this novel.  What do I mean?  His son, Patrick Scott, drowned in a swimming pool.  Crews, in this novel, has scenes where karate classes (brutal ones, led by the sensei going only under the name of "Belt," as well as his bikini-clad protogee' , a brown belt who befriends our Hero.
From Wikipedia:

Harry Crews (born June 7, 1935) is an American novelist, playwright, short story writer and essayist.

He was born in Bacon County, Georgia^[1] in 1935 and served in the Marines during the Korean War. He attended the University of Florida on the GI Bill, but dropped out to travel. Eventually returning to the university, Harry finally graduated and moved his wife, Sally, and son, Patrick Scott, to Jacksonville where Harry taught Junior High English for a year.

Harry returned to Gainesville and the university to work on his master's in English Education. It was during this period that he and Sally divorced for the first time. Harry continued his studies, graduated, and - denied entrance into UF's Creative Writing program - took a teaching position at Broward Community College in the subject of English. It was here in south Florida that Harry convinced Sally to return to him, and they were re-married. A second son, Byron, was born to them in 1963. He returned to University of Florida in 1968 not as a student, but as a member of the faculty in Creative Writing. He currently teaches at Wright State University.[1]

In 1964, Patrick Scott drowned in a neighbor's pool. This proved to be too heavy a burden on the family, and Harry and Sally were once again divorced.

His first published novel, The Gospel Singer, was released in 1968. His novels include: A Feast of Snakes, The Hawk is Dying, Body, Scar Lover, Karate Is A Thing of the Spirit, All We Need of Hell, The Mulching of America, Car, and Celebration. He published a memoir in 1978 titled A Childhood: The Biography of a Place.

But I digress:  I am here to talk about author Elmore Leonard, author of things like "Glitz," and, specifically, Freaky Deaky.  Let's first look at the book for a bit.  The plot line is, officially now:
 "Set in 1974, a pair of '60s radicals rely on their bomb-making skills on their way to becoming capitalists."  (from imbd.com).


And this is the essence of it.  The novel has this fast, shameless pacing to it.  The characters are fleshed out right off the rip and the vicarious experience all readers crave is created upon impact.  


"O.K.  HERE'S WHAT YOU DO.  Stand in the boostore and read the first chapter of FREAKY DEAKY.  Won't take long.  Only ten pages.  The store owner won't mind because he knows you will then buy the book."  ---George Will  



That's a pretty big promise, so of course I gave that a whirl.  And it is so.


Talk about mad pacing and color and really interesting characters:  all in a little paperback.


Now, the big news is that I apparently was not the only person that noticed that, right?  I never was a big fan of Glitz, and I never made the connection between that work of his, and this, which is quite to my taste.  


"Freaky Deaky" is now scheduled as a feature film, starring Christian Slater.  Release date 2012, from what I am seeing.


THAT has some promise, my gentle readers.  At least I think so.  


But in the meantime, cop a copy of "Freaky Deaky."  I bet the used ones are going to get snapped up pretty quick.  There are various covers.  The one I show here is the one I own.  First Warner Books printing April, 1989.


R.D.Engle
Get Your Freak On.