Pronto

I ve been binge watching FX s series Justified, and decided it might be fun to extend my binge by reading the El Leonard books that inspired the series I figured I d start out with Pronto, the first novel to feature stetson wearing Federal Marshal Raylan Givens, native of Harlan County and veteran of the Kentucky mines The novel ends where the series begins, with the justified shooting of a mobster at an outdoor cafe in Miami The book begins in Miami too, but it has to travel to Italy and back a [...]

Find all of my reviews at 52bookminimum When 99.99999% of the entertainment value of your reviews is f based, things like this tend to happen quite frequently and some reviews just flat out fall through the cracks of your pop culture infused brain Thus was the case with Pronto I m always fighting the losing battle of correcting some of my literary shortcomings and reading authors who I know I want to read and should be reading, but somehow still haven t and yet somehow I always find time to read [...]

Why did I love this book Two words Raylan Givens, my favorite kick ass modern day cowboy with a fondness for ice cream Pronto, however, is not exclusively Raylan s story, though he figures as a prominent character once he does arrive on the scene This is actually the story of Harry Arno, a bookie who has decided that in one year he s going to retire and go to Italy Italy holds a special place in Harry s heart because he once shot a deserter there during World War II and it was there that he saw [...]

Pronto is my first read from El Leonard and it s all because of the introduction of one Raylan Givens, the character the TV series Justified is based on, which I m a big fan of U.S Marshal Raylan Givens is not the main character of Pronto, a co star but he still manages to steal the show in a character driven story The stories main focal point is mob book runner Harry Arno, an aged man who works the phone, takes the bets and makes money for the Mafia Harry s fortunes change when he gets set up [...]

The Raylan Givens character that El Leonard introduced in this book is the basis of a new TV show called Justified that will be premiering soon If you just read the first half of the book, you d probably wonder why anyone would do a show where the hero is a complete moron If you read the whole book, you ll be sure to set your DVR to record the series so you won t miss a minute of it.Harry Arno is a sixty six year old bookie in Miami who has been dreaming about retiring to Italy for years His pla [...]

My book recommendation for this month is not a book recommendation, but a body of work Like many writers, I want to pay tribute to El Leonard, who recently passed away He was for me the quintessential writer of quirky, engaging and thoroughly believable dialogue When reading his books, I never much paid attention to the plots because I was too engaged in his characters You got to know them in the course of a book, and you wanted to spend time with them Even most bizarre, troublesome and sometime [...]

For me, there s John Steinbeck, El Leonard and Flannery O Connor and then all other authors That said, Leonard s work is championship caliber or DNP due to league substance violation Hit or miss His 1993 novel Pronto actually lopes along for 241 pages occupying the middle of the pack Rather than a great novel, it s travelogue that reads like backstory to a great novel Then the last 24 pages happen and throw everything up for grabs.The story opens in South Miami Beach, where 66 year old Harry Ar [...]

Graham Greene was known to have categorized some of his own books as entertainments Greene was aware that a writer had great power over the worlds he created He knew that a writer could manipulate his stories and his characters in order to enhance the thrill of the read So when one reads The End of the Affair they experience a different approach to writing than the approach used by Greene in Brighton Rock Even though both books are entertaining, the latter is one of Greene s entertainments becau [...]

The ant s a centaur in his dragon world Pull down thy vanity Ezra Pound, Canto LXXXI Not the best El Leonard, but worth it for three major things 1 Justified This is the first El Leonard novel that features Raylan Givens later to appear in the FX series Justified I think I ve watched maybe one episode and it looks good, but if you are a fan of the series just be aware, this book isn t exactly centered on Raylan Givens It is centered on Miami bookmaker Harry Arno Arno is a romantic bookie who nee [...]

I wondered often before i started reading this novel if the literary Raylan Givens was a minor Leonard character and not as well done as tv version played by Timothy Olyphant in Justified Raylan in the tv show is ice cool character wonderfully written, played so well by an actor that reminded me of Clint Eastwood and not because of the modern Cowboy thing.Raylan in this book is just as great as a character, he carried the book in the same cool,hardboiled manner and he was mildly amusing with his [...]

This is a great introduction to Raylan ends about where the TV series Justified begins, although there was quite a change for TV Still, the basics are there it paints a thorough picture of Raylan s personality He s a wonderful character, too His laconic yet tenacious style coupled with a twisty, thrilling plot is so satisfying.As an audio book, it was pretty well read The reader did some voices all were intelligible yet distinct fit the characters well He did rush breaks, but I m not sure if tha [...]

The Review thefictionalhangout.cHarry Arno runs a South Miami Beach gambling operation To protect his position, he was forced to cut a deal with the local muscle, Jimmy Capotorto Jumbo Jimmy Cap , an even fifty fifty split For years Harry had been padding his own stake by skimming off the top Now a couple of local detectives wise to sticky fingers try to bag Jimmy by putting the squeeze on Harry U.S Marshalls deliver Harry to court to testify at Jimmy s trial Even though he s a step slower than [...]

I really enjoyed reading this because of El Leonard s effortless narrative style of writing He blends in his dialogue so seamlessly with the descriptive prose that it is easy to imagine what s happening as if it s right in front of you This novel would make a perfect Quentin Tarantino film PRONTO was a refreshing change after reading a long line of romance novels The key players in this novel were 1 The Bookie aka Harry Arno aka John Harold Arnaud 66 yr old war veteran.2 The Cowboy aka US Deputy [...]

My rating 3 of 5 starsSource Library CheckoutPronto tells the story of Harry Arno he s a Miami bookie, is dating a topless dancer named Joyce and plans to retire to a villa in Italy within the next year Harry has been skimming profits from his boss Jimmy Cap for years but has so far remained undetected until the Feds decide to set him up in order to get to Jimmy thus forcing him to move up his retirement date and has him fleeing town immediately I decided to pick Pronto as my first El Leonard no [...]

El Leonard is my second favorite author next to Stephen King Given no pun intended that fact, that I loved Pronto will come as no surprise What is surprising is how deftly Leonard switches settings in this tale We begin in Miami, head over to Italy for a substantial chunk of the novel, then return to Miami And all the while, Leonard is juggling characters, their motivations, and their desires Making this juggling act an even greater feat is the fact that the characters motivations and desires ar [...]

This wasn t a bad book, it bogged down badly in the middle I ve noticed isn t all that unusual in some mystery, thriller or even action books I suppose it didn t help that I really didn t care for any one of the characters in this novel except possibly for the Marshal Raylan Harry a ne er do well thieving has been crook who may be called the main character uses everyone he can etc Joyce, who lets herself be used and has some mysterious love using the word loosely for HarryTommy Bucks Zip, Jimmy, [...]

I can t believe this was the first El Leonard novel I d read What s wrong with me It took the show Justified to convince me that I needed to give him a shot After all, his character Raylan Givens is one of the most uniquely original protagonists in the last decade of television dramas This is the first full book featuring Federal Marshall Raylan Givens and it did not disappoint Leonard is a master story teller whose characters are so incredibly flawed that you can t help be drawn in by their idi [...]

I adore Justified, so I wanted to read the original source for the series Decent, sparse writing and an ok plot.

With the first five seasons of Justified currently available on demand to Sky subscribers I was tempted into watching this show from the start I soon got hooked and became curious about the original books featuring sharp shooting US Marshall Raylan Givens by El Leonard Being a beast with a very methodical nature I grabbed me a copy of book 1 and got started, Pronto isn t really a book about Raylan though He starts out as a supporting character in what turns out to be a character piece The main p [...]

Did I read the same book as everyone else After hearing about Leonard s supposed mastery of the hard boiled crime genre, I picked this one up expecting plenty of twists, turns, and action Instead, I found myself reading page after page of dull dialogue They go to a restaurant and talk Then they go to Italy and talk in cafes Then they talk in a villa The plot is so simple and the action so scarce that one must wonder if Leonard is simply bored with his own work I can imagine the author being vagu [...]

Enjoyable, but I had a hard time Justifying Leonard s character of Raylan with some bumbling decisions to the Tim Olyphant characterization in Raylan.

You hear him say he s from some county People from the South do that Not in Florida so much, I mean people from the south South I ve heard of Harlan County, Joyce said You want to know what I think Tell me He s not as dumb as you d like to believe Somehow, I didn t even remember this exchange from before The thing about the county Which is so true about the south South that I may have just realized now, at twenty nine years old, despite having traveled all over the country, that it s a southern [...]

An incongruous story at best A modern cowboy wanna be, U.S Marshal Raylan Givens, has taken off for Italy in pursuit of Harry who is being sought by a number of felons who want to do him harm I started reading the Raylan Givens series after reading an interview with El Leonard who remarked that the writing and character of Givens in the TV series was spot on I watched a couple of the Justified , liked them, and then have been reading the Givens books Generally, they are pretty good, except for t [...]

I ve become sort of indirectly obsessed with El Leonard because of Justified which, though it s the last thing anyone who knows me would have expected me to watch, I think has really influenced my understanding of how character and dialogue can function in storytelling , so it was nice to check out this book and see something much stronger than Raylan, which I think was too deeply in the shadow of the TV series, though I really loved Fire in the Hole , which takes place after this and was adapte [...]

This is one scenario where the movie or, appropriately, the TV show is actually better than the book Pronto is the first Leonard novel to feature Deputy U.S Marshal Raylan Givens, who is the lead character on the FX series Justified Leonard is an EP on the show, so he s been fully involved with the evolution of the character from page to screen, and that evolution is just flat out better than what we get here Pronto is still a good read, but Raylan isn t quite as dynamic and definitely not as c [...]

I liked this one quite a bit but I like Raylan Givens a lot This is the first book starring the throwback Deputy Marshall and it is pretty much what you would expect The characters are excellent, the dialog pops, the story move right along to a satisfying ending El Leonard is a goddamned genius and that is that.

What took me so long to read El Leonard This was fantastic, loved it from start to finish Raylan Givens is a great character, so good I might even watch the TV show that features him Headed to the library to get the next one

El Leonard is the best because every book he wrote has at least two characters who could ve been played by Lee Marvin.

4.5 5 I really enjoyed this quick read, it was fun Comical at times, likeable cheesy other times, and an all around really good narrative I m a big fan of Justified, I liked the differences between Raylan there and in the novel I ll definitely read all of the Raylan Givens novels and shorts.

I love the tv show Justified on FX and recently found out that there are books written with characters How weird is it that the tv show was made 20 years after the first book Anyway, here is my review Pronto by El Leonard is a pretty short book about a bookie that gets set up to be killed and flees the country to escape The aging, insecure, alcoholic arrives in Italy and decides he wants his girlfriend to join him This is an odd choice of country to flee to considering the Hitman or Zip is from [...]