Dale Spindel
A few weeks ago, as I was once again browsing my library's audiobook collection, there were several reasons why I decided to pick up The Cut, by George Pelecanos: it was well reviewed, it was relatively short (contained on only 6 CDs) and Pelecanos' writing creds include The Wire which, IMHO, is arguably the greatest television series of all time. As a bonus, the brief description on the audiobook packaging gave me a reasonable assurance that I would not be encountering any wedding planners, florists, interior designers, or cosmetics executives during the course of the narrative.
The main protagonist of The Cutis Spero Lucas, an Iraqi war vet who has parlayed his military skills into a career as an unlicenced, self employed private detective. What makes Lucas compelling as a character is that his moral compass is not always in strict conformance with what the law dictates to be right and wrong. Equally compelling is the story's setting in a part of Washington D.C. that is seldom, if ever, visited by tourists and which, although it may be a little rough around the edges, is inhabited for the most part by ordinary people who are simply trying to get by in life. Yes, there are some psychopathic bad guys, but Pelecanos does an especially fine job of describing the pathos that accompanies those characters who are basically good people who allow themselves to get caught up in bad situations.
A particularly notable aspect of The Cutis that it absolutely reeks of testosterone. The young female characters after whom Lucas lusts are described in admiring detail; it seems that just about every other female in the book is somebody's mother and therefore subject to those particular ravages of age that the female body is prone to. The sex scenes are explicit and very much written from the male point of view. I found this to be a little bit unsettling which means, I guess, that it was really well done.
It is, however, Pelecanos' skill as a storyteller that especially makes The Cut such an enjoyable read. The reader is kept wondering about the particulars of the crime until Pelecanos finally allows all the dots to be connected. What made the story extraordinary for me was that Pelecanos upped the ante considerably by trapping a particularly sympathetic character in a situation from which there appeared to be no possible escape. The plotting that leads to the resolution of this situation was nothing short of brilliant - there was no way that I could possibly have predicted that particular turn of events.
I also want to acknowledge the brilliant performance of Dion Graham who performed the narration of this audiobook in a voice that perfectly matched the darkness and cynicism of the storyline; the fact that the quality of his voice bears more than a passing similarity to that of Rod Serling only heightened the effect. The only drawback was that the terse style of dialog sometimes came across awkwardly when it was read aloud.
One minor complaint: When describing what Lucas and several other of the main characters were wearing, Pelecanos relied way too much on the dropping of brand names. The assumption that I would be fluent in the use of that particular descriptive shorthand was way off the mark.
Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!
