Get Shorty

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Chili attracts a wide variety of waitresses, beauticians or sales clerks at Dadeland Mall with his confidence, but most of them play second fiddle to Chili's real love: movies. Unlike most crime plots there are few if any twists, but they're really unnecessary since this is character driven. There’s also a slow-burning romantic interest in Harry’s ex, Karen Flores, known for her excellent screaming in some of Harry’s horror spectaculars, and a woman with brains and a cool head in a crisis. He has left the payment in a locker at the Los Angeles airport but the Colombian sent to receive the money, Yayo, does not feel safe unlocking the locker with so many DEA agents nearby. Some, I've even seen scripts where I know words weren't spelled right and there was hardly any commas in it.

It’s great to see how meta this book can get at times particularly with its focus on Hollywood and it’s interesting to learn that Leonard wrote this book based on his own experiences, managing to incorporate good jokes about the people that work in the industry. So Chili is, in essence, pitching an Elmore Leonard story within an Elmore Leonard novel to an Elmore Leonard character (who will ultimately be played by Gene Hackman).What follows is an unlikely alliance between the pair, with supporting roles from every walk of life. Unfortunately, Chili ends up working for Ray who immediately demands that Chili shake down overdue payment from a dry cleaner.

However, Debbie overheard and decided her miscarriage happened because Chili was still working for the Brooklyn crew.Harry thinks he can use Michael’s name to get a big studio deal to make something better than schlock for a change , but he’s got a problem with a drug dealer name Bo Catlett who usually finances his movies to launder drug money.

Twelve years later, Chili is phasing himself out of the loan shark business, doing collection work for local merchants and a couple of casinos in Las Vegas, as well as handling a few regular borrowers who only need an icy stare to pay up. Get Shorty is a 1990 novel about “Chili” Palmer - a Miami shylock –who was “tired of showing respect to people he thought were assholes. One of the genius elements, of GET SHORTY, of course, is the author creating his work of fiction as if it were in real time even as the characters use their lives in real time to create a movie – or maybe movies – about their unfolding lives.A twisted trail eventually leads Chili to LA where he gets mixed up with Harry Zimm, a small-time producer of horror movies who has a new script that flighty superstar actor Michael Weir has expressed an interest in. Seamus Heaney’s deeply felt interpretation, widely acknowledged as the greatest Beowulf translation of modern times, is presented in parallel with the Old English verse in this fabulous Folio edition. Earlier this month I read Leonard's "Out of Sight," which was also a delight, and I picked up "Get Shorty" because I had enjoyed the movie version.