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Owning Up
Four blistering novellas, drawn together by themes of strife, violence, and humanity, from esteemed crime fiction writer George Pelecanos; "Like his hero Elmore Leonard, Pelecanos finds the humanity in the lowest of lowlifes." ( Chicago Tribune )
When the son of the Carusos is involved in a hold up, the family home comes under siege in the form of a no-knock warrant. Months after the cops destroyed their home, the Carusos struggle to return to normal. Elsewhere, two former inmates reunite by chance on the set of a TV production. Both have found their way on the straight and narrow path, that is, until one sees the potential for an easy grift. A teenage boy must step into the man he'd like to be as a hostage crisis grips his hometown. A woman adrift meets a man tied to her grandmother's past, an encounter that awakens her to a bloody history that undergirds the place she grew up.
Pelecanos' portraits are characterized by shades of grey, resisting the mold of heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators, good and evil. At once streetwise and full of heart, Owning Up grapples with random chance, the bind of consequence, and the forked paths a life can take.
When the son of the Carusos is involved in a hold up, the family home comes under siege in the form of a no-knock warrant. Months after the cops destroyed their home, the Carusos struggle to return to normal. Elsewhere, two former inmates reunite by chance on the set of a TV production. Both have found their way on the straight and narrow path, that is, until one sees the potential for an easy grift. A teenage boy must step into the man he'd like to be as a hostage crisis grips his hometown. A woman adrift meets a man tied to her grandmother's past, an encounter that awakens her to a bloody history that undergirds the place she grew up.
Pelecanos' portraits are characterized by shades of grey, resisting the mold of heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators, good and evil. At once streetwise and full of heart, Owning Up grapples with random chance, the bind of consequence, and the forked paths a life can take.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published February 6, 2024
About the author
George P. Pelecanos
80 books1,568 followersGeorge Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C., in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, and woman's shoe salesman before publishing his first novel in 1992.
Pelecanos is the author of eighteen novels set in and around Washington, D.C.: A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, Shoedog, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus, Hard Revolution, Drama City, The Night Gardener, The Turnaround, The Way Home, The Cut, and What It Was. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler award in Italy, the Falcon award in Japan, and the Grand Prix du Roman Noir in France. Hell to Pay and Soul Circus were awarded the 2003 and 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Playboy, and the collections Unusual Suspects, Best American Mystery Stories of 1997, Measures of Poison, Best American Mystery Stories of 2002, Men from Boys, and Murder at the Foul Line. He served as editor on the collections D.C. Noir and D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, as well as The Best Mystery Stories of 2008. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Sight and Sound, Uncut, Mojo, and numerous other publications. Esquire called him "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world." In Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King wrote that Pelecanos is "perhaps the greatest living American crime writer." Pelecanos would like to note that Mr. King used the qualifier "perhaps."
Pelecanos served as producer on the feature films Caught (Robert M. Young, 1996), Whatever, (Susan Skoog, 1998) and BlackMale (George and Mike Baluzy, 1999), and was the U.S. distributor of John Woo's cult classic, The Killer and Richard Bugajski's Interrogation. Most recently, he was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award and the AFI Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on that show. He was a writer and co-producer on the World War II miniseries The Pacific, and is currently at work as an executive producer and writer on David Simon's HBO dramatic series Treme, shot in New Orleans.
Pelecanos lives with his family in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Pelecanos is the author of eighteen novels set in and around Washington, D.C.: A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, Shoedog, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus, Hard Revolution, Drama City, The Night Gardener, The Turnaround, The Way Home, The Cut, and What It Was. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler award in Italy, the Falcon award in Japan, and the Grand Prix du Roman Noir in France. Hell to Pay and Soul Circus were awarded the 2003 and 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Playboy, and the collections Unusual Suspects, Best American Mystery Stories of 1997, Measures of Poison, Best American Mystery Stories of 2002, Men from Boys, and Murder at the Foul Line. He served as editor on the collections D.C. Noir and D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, as well as The Best Mystery Stories of 2008. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Sight and Sound, Uncut, Mojo, and numerous other publications. Esquire called him "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world." In Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King wrote that Pelecanos is "perhaps the greatest living American crime writer." Pelecanos would like to note that Mr. King used the qualifier "perhaps."
Pelecanos served as producer on the feature films Caught (Robert M. Young, 1996), Whatever, (Susan Skoog, 1998) and BlackMale (George and Mike Baluzy, 1999), and was the U.S. distributor of John Woo's cult classic, The Killer and Richard Bugajski's Interrogation. Most recently, he was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award and the AFI Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on that show. He was a writer and co-producer on the World War II miniseries The Pacific, and is currently at work as an executive producer and writer on David Simon's HBO dramatic series Treme, shot in New Orleans.
Pelecanos lives with his family in Silver Spring, Maryland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
April 5, 2024
Almost a story of contradictions about a young man torn between his friends and his family upbringing. There is more negativity than necessary. 5 of 10 stars
June 3, 2024
This is a book of four novellas that each uniquely tackle societal issues or race, social standing and temptation. Each of these stories are strongly character driven and, if they have a common theme, all tend to spotlight an important part in the main character’s lives, a crossroads that defines their future.
Here’s the bare bones summary of each of the stories.
The Amusement Machine
Ira Rubin is an ex-con who has found his way onto a movie set, working as an extra. He needs the money but is unimpressed with the drudgery and sameness of the work involved, waiting around for hours before anything happens. He can’t help but resort to type when he spots someone from the production company leaving a padded envelope outside the office door. Thinking he was on his own he takes the envelope and sparks trouble for himself and a friend of his, life-threatening trouble. In many respects this is a story of redemption and triumph, however it’s hard won and overshadowed by moments of adversity.
The No-Knock
Police execute a no-knock warrant on the family home of Joe Caruso looking for Joe’s son Vincent who was involved in an armed robbery. The story deals with the emotional impact on the various members of the family whose lives were affected in different ways.
Knickerbocker
This is a historical piece that looks at events of racial unrest that took place in the 1920s as well as relationships that fell outside the bounds of ethnic and religious beliefs. Leah Brown is gathering information from her grandmother with the intention of writing her first novel and learns of various acts of violence and unrest that took place in the midst of Prohibition era restrictions. She learns that tragedy was to play a big part in her family’s history.
Owning Up
The 4th and final story in the collection is set in the 1970s where a major hate incident is taking place in the city of Washington DC. Meanwhile, Nikos is helping a couple of guys he works with enter someone’s apartment to take back a pile of records after a break up. Doing so he narrowly avoids becoming an unwitting part of a store hold up. Like the other stories in this collection, racism lurks in every background moment and defines the mood of the story.
While I found the stories to be quite engaging and reeked of the typical Pelecanos flair for capturing the mood of the place and time, they each tended to fall a little flat for me. In each case the characters were richly developed and brought to vivid life, complete with backstories that made them instantly interesting.
It’s a shame, then, that they weren’t involved in more momentous stories. I was waiting for some kind of meaningful plot twist or learning moment that would make the stories memorable but, disappointingly, the power punch never really comes.
Here’s the bare bones summary of each of the stories.
The Amusement Machine
Ira Rubin is an ex-con who has found his way onto a movie set, working as an extra. He needs the money but is unimpressed with the drudgery and sameness of the work involved, waiting around for hours before anything happens. He can’t help but resort to type when he spots someone from the production company leaving a padded envelope outside the office door. Thinking he was on his own he takes the envelope and sparks trouble for himself and a friend of his, life-threatening trouble. In many respects this is a story of redemption and triumph, however it’s hard won and overshadowed by moments of adversity.
The No-Knock
Police execute a no-knock warrant on the family home of Joe Caruso looking for Joe’s son Vincent who was involved in an armed robbery. The story deals with the emotional impact on the various members of the family whose lives were affected in different ways.
Knickerbocker
This is a historical piece that looks at events of racial unrest that took place in the 1920s as well as relationships that fell outside the bounds of ethnic and religious beliefs. Leah Brown is gathering information from her grandmother with the intention of writing her first novel and learns of various acts of violence and unrest that took place in the midst of Prohibition era restrictions. She learns that tragedy was to play a big part in her family’s history.
Owning Up
The 4th and final story in the collection is set in the 1970s where a major hate incident is taking place in the city of Washington DC. Meanwhile, Nikos is helping a couple of guys he works with enter someone’s apartment to take back a pile of records after a break up. Doing so he narrowly avoids becoming an unwitting part of a store hold up. Like the other stories in this collection, racism lurks in every background moment and defines the mood of the story.
While I found the stories to be quite engaging and reeked of the typical Pelecanos flair for capturing the mood of the place and time, they each tended to fall a little flat for me. In each case the characters were richly developed and brought to vivid life, complete with backstories that made them instantly interesting.
It’s a shame, then, that they weren’t involved in more momentous stories. I was waiting for some kind of meaningful plot twist or learning moment that would make the stories memorable but, disappointingly, the power punch never really comes.
February 17, 2024
It's been a few years since we saw new fiction from George Pelecanos and OWNING UP is well worth the wait. This collection of four short stories delivers on the same premise that has made him one of the best in the business at what he does.
I have always categorized Pelecanos amongst a trio of writers who truly have their ear to the ground and are able to convert that into street-level fiction that is so gritty and real it consumes your senses. These three writers are Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and of course, George Pelecanos.
My recap of these four deeply layered tales is as follows:
- THE AMUSEMENT MACHINE - here we meet fellow inmates Ira Rubin and Jerrod Williams. Two young men wearing the orange jumpsuits that have become synonymous with incarceration who are serving their short time and eager to return to their lives in Washington D.C. Williams first notices Rubin because he was one of the few white inmates. Rubin was arrested for some minor level theft and Williams on a trumped-up gun charge. Moving forward in time, the two men run into each other on the outside as they are both auditioning for extra roles on a Baltimore-based film. Williams indicates that this is what he wants to do with is life, act. Rubin, meanwhile, has little skill and just needed to make some money and stay out of trouble. As their lives begin to diverge again, the bond that has formed between them remains strong.
- THE NO-KNOCK - this story features a small loophole in the law enforcement field that allows for an unexpected or 'no knock' search of property if someone involved in a felony resides there. This is why this traumatic event hits the unsuspecting Caruso family. When author Joseph Caruso sees men in kevlar vests suddenly descending on his home his thoughts immediately go to his somewhat misguided son, Vincent. It was indeed a criminal incident regarding Vincent that caused this, but the upheaval and damage done to their home from the no-knock search is something that will mark the rest of the Caruso's lives. The symbolic piece here is the loss of a valuable and cherished piece of jewelry, a gold cross necklace that was a gift to Vincent. The police claim to have no knowledge of this piece and its loss symbolizes the incursion made against their lives by this incident. We see the fallout from it in the successive years that follow and the writing that Joseph plans to release to define what they all went through.
- KNICKERBOCKER - this is a historical story that deals with memory and an incident from the past that caused significant racial divide in Northeast D.C. Leah Brown is visiting her grandmother Maria at a retirement home. It is during this visit that Maria regales Leah with a story from her own past and a violent incident in the heart of the prohibition age that she can never forget. Her own boyfriend at the time was involved as was a black gentleman named Robert Charles Weather. Robert was unfairly blamed with a tragedy that befell the local Knickerbocker Theatre and this is a story Leah wants to confirm for herself. The touching and emotional center of this story is when Leah meets with the elderly Robert Charles Weather and, explaining who she is, getting his side of the saga.
- OWNING UP - the last story and one in which our collection is named for tackles yet another social and moral conflict, this one between religious sects in D.C. Beginning in the 1970's and continuing from there, we get to witness a major violent incident through the eyes of young Nikos. He finds himself in the mix of anti-Muslim hatred and revenge that some Muslims take on those who they feel wronged them. Nikos is moved by this situation because he is a big Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fan, and was inspired to learn more about why his favorite NBA star became a devoted Muslim. The local incident driven by hatred and religious intolerance features a hostage crisis that rocks the city and will shape Nikos for the rest of his days.
George Pelecanos never pulls any punches with his writing, it's just not in his DNA. However, he does not allow any judgement to enter into his narrative and stays in the gray area between fact, fiction, right, and wrong and leaves the rest up to the reader. I have always respected that about his work and it is what makes him the street poet that he is.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
I have always categorized Pelecanos amongst a trio of writers who truly have their ear to the ground and are able to convert that into street-level fiction that is so gritty and real it consumes your senses. These three writers are Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and of course, George Pelecanos.
My recap of these four deeply layered tales is as follows:
- THE AMUSEMENT MACHINE - here we meet fellow inmates Ira Rubin and Jerrod Williams. Two young men wearing the orange jumpsuits that have become synonymous with incarceration who are serving their short time and eager to return to their lives in Washington D.C. Williams first notices Rubin because he was one of the few white inmates. Rubin was arrested for some minor level theft and Williams on a trumped-up gun charge. Moving forward in time, the two men run into each other on the outside as they are both auditioning for extra roles on a Baltimore-based film. Williams indicates that this is what he wants to do with is life, act. Rubin, meanwhile, has little skill and just needed to make some money and stay out of trouble. As their lives begin to diverge again, the bond that has formed between them remains strong.
- THE NO-KNOCK - this story features a small loophole in the law enforcement field that allows for an unexpected or 'no knock' search of property if someone involved in a felony resides there. This is why this traumatic event hits the unsuspecting Caruso family. When author Joseph Caruso sees men in kevlar vests suddenly descending on his home his thoughts immediately go to his somewhat misguided son, Vincent. It was indeed a criminal incident regarding Vincent that caused this, but the upheaval and damage done to their home from the no-knock search is something that will mark the rest of the Caruso's lives. The symbolic piece here is the loss of a valuable and cherished piece of jewelry, a gold cross necklace that was a gift to Vincent. The police claim to have no knowledge of this piece and its loss symbolizes the incursion made against their lives by this incident. We see the fallout from it in the successive years that follow and the writing that Joseph plans to release to define what they all went through.
- KNICKERBOCKER - this is a historical story that deals with memory and an incident from the past that caused significant racial divide in Northeast D.C. Leah Brown is visiting her grandmother Maria at a retirement home. It is during this visit that Maria regales Leah with a story from her own past and a violent incident in the heart of the prohibition age that she can never forget. Her own boyfriend at the time was involved as was a black gentleman named Robert Charles Weather. Robert was unfairly blamed with a tragedy that befell the local Knickerbocker Theatre and this is a story Leah wants to confirm for herself. The touching and emotional center of this story is when Leah meets with the elderly Robert Charles Weather and, explaining who she is, getting his side of the saga.
- OWNING UP - the last story and one in which our collection is named for tackles yet another social and moral conflict, this one between religious sects in D.C. Beginning in the 1970's and continuing from there, we get to witness a major violent incident through the eyes of young Nikos. He finds himself in the mix of anti-Muslim hatred and revenge that some Muslims take on those who they feel wronged them. Nikos is moved by this situation because he is a big Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fan, and was inspired to learn more about why his favorite NBA star became a devoted Muslim. The local incident driven by hatred and religious intolerance features a hostage crisis that rocks the city and will shape Nikos for the rest of his days.
George Pelecanos never pulls any punches with his writing, it's just not in his DNA. However, he does not allow any judgement to enter into his narrative and stays in the gray area between fact, fiction, right, and wrong and leaves the rest up to the reader. I have always respected that about his work and it is what makes him the street poet that he is.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
February 15, 2024
George Pelecanos is one of my favourite writers and when I saw he had a new publication I just couldn’t wait to read it but to be honest after finishing it, I feel slightly underwhelmed. The book consists of four novella length stories and although they’re not crime stories per se, they do contain elements of criminality. Each novella seems to cover a long time frame and the underlying theme seems to be one of ambition, whether fulfilled or otherwise. I did enjoy the ‘real time’ portions of each story but then felt that there was too much summarisation of the protagonist’s lives that followed on to the conclusions of the stories. It felt as though the stories were started but then not fully realised. Pelecanos obviously draws on his own knowledge as a writer and also of his involvement with film and television, as these aspects feature heavily in the stories. The stories are easily readable but just seem to lack any real punch or plot twists which is what I enjoy about most short story collections.
However I see Pelecanos has a new novel scheduled for summertime release and I’m hoping that lives up to his usual high standard.
However I see Pelecanos has a new novel scheduled for summertime release and I’m hoping that lives up to his usual high standard.
April 30, 2024
I've always admired the crime fiction of George Pelecanos, his ability to convey so much with short, crisp sentences and an abundance of realistic dialogue. His tales always give the impression of being narrated by street-smart individuals (whether written as first-person narratives or third-person descriptions).
The four short novellas here do not feature professional criminals but in most cases deal with everyday people pulled into borderline criminal situations - - and is stronger for it. As a bonus readers learn quite a bit about dramatic periods in actual history occurring in Washington D.C. and Baltimore, two areas which Pelecanos knows so well and features well-known streets and landmarks.
The inclusion of actual events should also qualify this collection for the historical fiction label as well as crime fiction.
This collection could have had "And Growing Up" added to the title. The one commonality is that all four protagonists in these stories have an epiphany of major and minor degrees that changes their morals or world view and shows their development/maturity.
This would make a great introduction to Pelecanos' writing. I look forward to his next novel.
The four short novellas here do not feature professional criminals but in most cases deal with everyday people pulled into borderline criminal situations - - and is stronger for it. As a bonus readers learn quite a bit about dramatic periods in actual history occurring in Washington D.C. and Baltimore, two areas which Pelecanos knows so well and features well-known streets and landmarks.
The inclusion of actual events should also qualify this collection for the historical fiction label as well as crime fiction.
This collection could have had "And Growing Up" added to the title. The one commonality is that all four protagonists in these stories have an epiphany of major and minor degrees that changes their morals or world view and shows their development/maturity.
This would make a great introduction to Pelecanos' writing. I look forward to his next novel.
February 21, 2024
I love Pelecanos, and I love my hometown of Washington and the DMV area. These stories are full of recognizable characters growing up in the 1970s, going to the same restaurants we did (shout out to Hamburger Hamlet fans everywhere). What Pelecanos is so good at is drawing characters that are familiar to a reader like me, yet unique as well. These 4 "novellas" are set around major events in DC's history, with characters who are coming of age in the city and navigating all of the attendant pressures of teenage years. The only knock on "Owning Up" I have is that some of the historical place-setting that Pelecanos does in the book feels like he is pulling material right out of a newspaper rather than his memory. Having just read "Chocolate City," a wonderfully detailed history of the District that I really enjoyed, I guess I was ready for Pelecanos to give me more of his characters' take on events like the 1977 Hanafi Siege, and the 1922 Knickerbocker Theater collapse, instead of spoonfeeding his readers details from a history book. That's a minor point, especially to readers not familiar with DC history. A really fun read.
March 15, 2024
As someone who loved The Wire and loves reading about local history, I enjoyed these short stories. The book contains 4 well developed, historically based stories - The Amusement Machine, The No-Knock, Knickerbocker, and Owning Up. The stories all contain locations familiar to me - Baltimore, DC, and the Maryland suburbs. They explore time periods familiar to me - growing up in the late 70's early 80's, my grandparents time period in Georgetown and contemporary Baltimore. And, all the stories depict different ethnicities and races - Hispanic, Black, Jewish, Muslim, Greek, etc. My favorite of the group is the Knickerbocker story. So well done! I found it very disturbing to read the No Knock warrant story & its life long effects on the fourth anniversary of Breonna Taylor's murder. Each story is thought provoking. Would be great material to generate discussion for high schoolers...especially the last story, Owning Up. On reflection, I'm changing my rating to 5*.
May 23, 2024
Having stumbled across one of his earliest books many years ago and recognized him as a terrific writer long before he was famous, I have a kind of proprietary interest in George Pelecanos. I read and enjoyed each of his succeeding books until one - I don’t remember which - contained enough dog-related brutality to extinguish my enthusiasm, so Owning Up is the first Pelecanos I’ve read in years. It consists of four longish short stories, the last of which, the title story, is obviously autobiographical. The other three involve Black residents of the nation’s capitol and reflect the writer’s view of unchallenged police authority, the primacy of nature over nurture, and the ease with which we rewrite our own memories of the outer world we personally experienced/observed in order to blunt/soften/forget the realities we saw firsthand. The overall theme seems to be that it is impossible to right today’s wrongs without honestly addressing (“owning”) the wrongs that one yesterday caused/participated in/accepted/benefited from. Given its writer it is no surprise that Owning Up is well-written … and dark.
February 21, 2024
Pelecanos writes with an easy style and these four novellas are full of life, heart and wisdom. Each story is unique but each one touches on issues of race and prejudice.
April 5, 2024
It's been a while since I read anything by George Pelecanos. He's really one of the finest American writers. Most of his books take place in and around Washington DC. I like that strong sense of place and since I've been there a few times I can visualize some of the locations. Pelecanos has written and been involved in producing some of my favorite programs: "Homicide: Life on the Street" which was mostly David Simon but Pelecanos wrote at least one episode if I remember correctly. He was also involved in "The Wire" (which I absolutely LOVED and saw twice), Treme (which didn't last and broke my heart when it didn't continue) and "We Own This City" which was one of the best dramas about police corruption I've ever seen. It's based on a real story and is, apparently, very true to what happened.
This book actually consists of four novellas. A family is never the same after their home is violated by a no knock warrant. I was shocked that a warrant like this could be obtained on the bais of the crime described. A young woman dreams of writing a novel, carrying a novel by Joyce Carol Oates around, wanting to write like her. That's her first mistake: she doesn't really have an idea of her own writing style. She dreams of writing a novel, but she doesn't write. She gets involved in some research which leads her to meet a man her grandmother briefly knew and a tragic riot in Washington DC in 1919. A high school senior gets involved with some bad people. Another teenager finds himself caught up in a hostage situation and learns what it means to man up. Two convicts meet in prison. One is able to reform, the other gets tempted by what he sees as an easy grifting opportunity. All four novellas follow the characters into old age. Pelecanos style is deceptively simple and straightforward. He's a national treasure.
This book actually consists of four novellas. A family is never the same after their home is violated by a no knock warrant. I was shocked that a warrant like this could be obtained on the bais of the crime described. A young woman dreams of writing a novel, carrying a novel by Joyce Carol Oates around, wanting to write like her. That's her first mistake: she doesn't really have an idea of her own writing style. She dreams of writing a novel, but she doesn't write. She gets involved in some research which leads her to meet a man her grandmother briefly knew and a tragic riot in Washington DC in 1919. A high school senior gets involved with some bad people. Another teenager finds himself caught up in a hostage situation and learns what it means to man up. Two convicts meet in prison. One is able to reform, the other gets tempted by what he sees as an easy grifting opportunity. All four novellas follow the characters into old age. Pelecanos style is deceptively simple and straightforward. He's a national treasure.
April 21, 2024
I did not realize this was 4 separate stories and I kept waiting for prior characters to reemerge, making this pretty confusing. So, readers note: each new section is all new people.
April 26, 2024
3.5 Rounded Up
First two stories were four stars and the second two stories were three stars. I liked the author's writing style and would read again from this author.
First two stories were four stars and the second two stories were three stars. I liked the author's writing style and would read again from this author.
April 15, 2024
I read everything by George Pelecanos, so when I heard he had a new book out, I expected a crime fiction novel. When I opened it, I was surprised to find four crime fiction novellas. After reading them, I must add ‘pleasantly’ to surprised.
The stories cover Pelecanos’s usual array of topics: parent/child relationships, how things change over time, the way a place or moment sticks to a person, the effects of violence, the excitement and folly of youth, immigration, racial prejudice, and drug use. It’s all there, and even though these stories don’t cover new ground, Pelecanos crosses it so well it doesn’t matter. It hits home. Here’s one passage that landed hard with me:
"If you stay in one place long enough... your own city will begin to haunt you. Buildings vanish, the elders pass, and as generations proceed the deceased are forgotten."
Pelecanos doesn’t say being forgotten is bad or something to be feared, he just says that it’s a fact. Insightful observation, and probably true. I couldn’t help but think of my own mortality as I read. All the stupid shit I did, the mistakes I made, the successes, my family, relationships, friends, school, work, sports, music, the mundane and most important moments.
That’s what great art does: it makes you think.
And Owning Up is a great book.
The stories cover Pelecanos’s usual array of topics: parent/child relationships, how things change over time, the way a place or moment sticks to a person, the effects of violence, the excitement and folly of youth, immigration, racial prejudice, and drug use. It’s all there, and even though these stories don’t cover new ground, Pelecanos crosses it so well it doesn’t matter. It hits home. Here’s one passage that landed hard with me:
"If you stay in one place long enough... your own city will begin to haunt you. Buildings vanish, the elders pass, and as generations proceed the deceased are forgotten."
Pelecanos doesn’t say being forgotten is bad or something to be feared, he just says that it’s a fact. Insightful observation, and probably true. I couldn’t help but think of my own mortality as I read. All the stupid shit I did, the mistakes I made, the successes, my family, relationships, friends, school, work, sports, music, the mundane and most important moments.
That’s what great art does: it makes you think.
And Owning Up is a great book.
February 26, 2024
This book of novellas was outstanding. It really underlined how much I missed reading Pelecanos’ prose. I didn’t know how spoiled we were when we used to get a new Pelecanos every year. Not that I don’t enjoy his television and film endeavors but I will always be first and foremost a fan of his writing. This book was honestly like catching up with an old beloved friend.
Full disclosure, when I first saw he had a new book coming out but when I saw it was going to be a book of novellas, I was slightly disappointed. Waiting six years for novellas was a surprise to me, even though I do love the format, some of my favorites authors best works is the novella format bound together in a collection; Jim Harrison, Don Winslow, Stephan King…I figured I would give it a shot.
I am truly happy I did. I ripped through this collection, and then I went back and read them again. I am not going to get into any story specifics but I will say that now that I think about it the novella as a format seems to be a perfect distillation of what Pelecanos has been doing all along. I am astounded at how much ground and life and character that he covers in a short time on the page. It is as if he has reduced everything down to the bare essentials, not a wasted word or sentence, but I would not describe it as terse or staccato either, he still can paint evocative, wide brush detail, and then turn around and have clean, straightforward sentences and dialogue captured as if from a documentary.
Also, for my money nobody writes endings like Pelecanos and this collection is another perfect example of that. Which to me means a lot as I feel it is the absolute hardest part of writing period. It is no surprise that my favorite novels of his, with the exception of Hard Revolution and The Big Blowdown, are the end of his Derrick Strange Trilogy, “Soul Circus” and the end of his DC Quartet, “Shame The Devil”. It is certainly no accident that he often writes penultimate episodes of many seasons of TV seasons just for that very reason.
Full disclosure, when I first saw he had a new book coming out but when I saw it was going to be a book of novellas, I was slightly disappointed. Waiting six years for novellas was a surprise to me, even though I do love the format, some of my favorites authors best works is the novella format bound together in a collection; Jim Harrison, Don Winslow, Stephan King…I figured I would give it a shot.
I am truly happy I did. I ripped through this collection, and then I went back and read them again. I am not going to get into any story specifics but I will say that now that I think about it the novella as a format seems to be a perfect distillation of what Pelecanos has been doing all along. I am astounded at how much ground and life and character that he covers in a short time on the page. It is as if he has reduced everything down to the bare essentials, not a wasted word or sentence, but I would not describe it as terse or staccato either, he still can paint evocative, wide brush detail, and then turn around and have clean, straightforward sentences and dialogue captured as if from a documentary.
Also, for my money nobody writes endings like Pelecanos and this collection is another perfect example of that. Which to me means a lot as I feel it is the absolute hardest part of writing period. It is no surprise that my favorite novels of his, with the exception of Hard Revolution and The Big Blowdown, are the end of his Derrick Strange Trilogy, “Soul Circus” and the end of his DC Quartet, “Shame The Devil”. It is certainly no accident that he often writes penultimate episodes of many seasons of TV seasons just for that very reason.
February 14, 2024
There was a time when George Pelecanos would publish a novel every year or so. Those were good days. Between 1992 and 2013, Pelecanos released (by my count) 19 novels. They were all must-reads. Things slowed down after that as Pelecanos got busy writing for film and television, working on projects like “The Wire,”
“Treme,” “The Deuce,” and “We Own This City.” Between 2014 and 2018, Pelecanos produced one collection of short stories and one novel. The Washington D.C.-born and bred writer is back with some new work in 2024. A collection of four novellas based around “themes of strife, violence, and humanity” and all set in or around DC.
Like Richard Price and Dennis Lehane, Pelecanos is a writer who deals with crime, criminals, and, for lack of a better term, the seedier aspects of life in and around a specific city. Like Price and Lehane, Pelecanos’ goal is not to shock or frighten the reader but to dive deep into the characters that inhabit his work. It would be easy to drop Pelecanos into the pulp-fiction, hardboiled crime pot, but that would be a mistake. His work has more in common with literature than with the producers of lurid paperbacks — not that those types of books don’t also have their time and place — they do.
Here is a brief overview of each of the novellas:
Ira Rubin, a former inmate of the DC jail system, meets a man he knew inside that facility on a casting call for a gig in Baltimore. Rubin, a middle-class young man floating through life without focus or worries, makes a bad call that drags both men into a situation they don’t want to be in.
Joseph Caruso is reading the paper when a SWAT team looking for his son serves a no-knock warrant on his suburban home. The story follows the trauma that emerges for each member of the Caruso household in the aftermath of the SWAT team’s work.
Leah Brown, a young woman hoping to write a novel set between two dates in DC history, interviews her grandmother while working on her book. In the process, Brown’s research leads her to discover how her family is tied to some turbulent times in the city’s past, while creating an unexpected friendship.
Lastly, there is the story of Nikos, who is charmed by an older co-worker who play acts as a street tough. It takes another co-worker to show Nikos that that man he admires is nothing but a knucklehead who isn’t worth a second thought.
What’s captivating about each of these short works is how Pelecanos takes these themes and expands them into profound character studies. None of the four novellas is your typical crime genre story. Each of the characters in the stories feels real and deep. Pelecanos packs (sometimes literally) a lifetime of experience into the people in the stories and imbues them with personality and complexity.
There are points in “Owning Up” where it seems as if Pelecanos is making a concerted effort to break free of the shackles of genre fiction, and he is largely successful. The work contained in the book is not merely a collection of four stories. Each piece has a plot and meaningful and complicated characters.
Some of the subjects that Pelecanos touches on in this work include race relations, the hubris of youth, D.C. history, personal growth, ambition, family dynamics, and life aspirations.
What separates Pelecanos from so many of his peers is his deft use of dialogue. There’s not one misstep in this book when it comes to the conversations between the characters. There’s no overwriting. There’s no fake tough-guy bullshit. The language feels genuine and honest, which is often lacking in modern fiction.
Owning Up left me wanting more of these short works from Pelecanos. After reading the book, I found myself thinking Pelecanos would be the perfect writer to explore a small piece of D.C. history from each neighborhood. This book is the perfect start for that project.
“Owning Up,” like all of Pelecanos’ previous work is a must read.
“Treme,” “The Deuce,” and “We Own This City.” Between 2014 and 2018, Pelecanos produced one collection of short stories and one novel. The Washington D.C.-born and bred writer is back with some new work in 2024. A collection of four novellas based around “themes of strife, violence, and humanity” and all set in or around DC.
Like Richard Price and Dennis Lehane, Pelecanos is a writer who deals with crime, criminals, and, for lack of a better term, the seedier aspects of life in and around a specific city. Like Price and Lehane, Pelecanos’ goal is not to shock or frighten the reader but to dive deep into the characters that inhabit his work. It would be easy to drop Pelecanos into the pulp-fiction, hardboiled crime pot, but that would be a mistake. His work has more in common with literature than with the producers of lurid paperbacks — not that those types of books don’t also have their time and place — they do.
Here is a brief overview of each of the novellas:
Ira Rubin, a former inmate of the DC jail system, meets a man he knew inside that facility on a casting call for a gig in Baltimore. Rubin, a middle-class young man floating through life without focus or worries, makes a bad call that drags both men into a situation they don’t want to be in.
Joseph Caruso is reading the paper when a SWAT team looking for his son serves a no-knock warrant on his suburban home. The story follows the trauma that emerges for each member of the Caruso household in the aftermath of the SWAT team’s work.
Leah Brown, a young woman hoping to write a novel set between two dates in DC history, interviews her grandmother while working on her book. In the process, Brown’s research leads her to discover how her family is tied to some turbulent times in the city’s past, while creating an unexpected friendship.
Lastly, there is the story of Nikos, who is charmed by an older co-worker who play acts as a street tough. It takes another co-worker to show Nikos that that man he admires is nothing but a knucklehead who isn’t worth a second thought.
What’s captivating about each of these short works is how Pelecanos takes these themes and expands them into profound character studies. None of the four novellas is your typical crime genre story. Each of the characters in the stories feels real and deep. Pelecanos packs (sometimes literally) a lifetime of experience into the people in the stories and imbues them with personality and complexity.
There are points in “Owning Up” where it seems as if Pelecanos is making a concerted effort to break free of the shackles of genre fiction, and he is largely successful. The work contained in the book is not merely a collection of four stories. Each piece has a plot and meaningful and complicated characters.
Some of the subjects that Pelecanos touches on in this work include race relations, the hubris of youth, D.C. history, personal growth, ambition, family dynamics, and life aspirations.
What separates Pelecanos from so many of his peers is his deft use of dialogue. There’s not one misstep in this book when it comes to the conversations between the characters. There’s no overwriting. There’s no fake tough-guy bullshit. The language feels genuine and honest, which is often lacking in modern fiction.
Owning Up left me wanting more of these short works from Pelecanos. After reading the book, I found myself thinking Pelecanos would be the perfect writer to explore a small piece of D.C. history from each neighborhood. This book is the perfect start for that project.
“Owning Up,” like all of Pelecanos’ previous work is a must read.
March 5, 2024
Ever since I read one of his first books in the early 1990s, George Pelecanos has been one of my absolute favorite crime writers. Although he has done well as a writer and executive producer of shows like
The Wire, Treme
, and
The Deuce
, he really should be more of a household name for his books.
He hasn’t published a book since 2018, so I was really excited to find his latest book during a bookstore visit this weekend. Even if this is more fiction with a dash of crime, it is so good to read his work again.
Owning Up is a collection of four novellas, each of which follows its main characters for a number of decades. In “The Amusement Machine,” two former inmates meet in a completely different environment since they’ve turned their lives around, at least until one finds money more tempting than freedom. In “The No-Knock,” a crime writer’s life is turned upside down when federal agents ransack his house, looking for evidence that his eldest son committed a crime.
Family history, as well as the history of some major acts of violence and disaster in Washington DC, are at the core of “Knickerbocker,” when a woman leading her grandmother through reminiscences brings her into a whole different world. And in the title novella, a young Greek man comes of age during two hostage crises in Washington, and he learns a valuable lesson from a coworker.
While I missed the whipsmart intensity of Pelecanos' crime novels, these novellas reminded me how well he creates characters that reside somewhere in the grey space between good and bad. There are familiar themes in this book, of family and heritage, over the struggle to do the right thing, and issues of racism and racial inequity. I’ve always loved the research he does for his books, and it’s gotten to the point where I’ve been here long enough to remember many of the places he writes about!!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.
Check out my best reads of 2023 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2023.html.
He hasn’t published a book since 2018, so I was really excited to find his latest book during a bookstore visit this weekend. Even if this is more fiction with a dash of crime, it is so good to read his work again.
Owning Up is a collection of four novellas, each of which follows its main characters for a number of decades. In “The Amusement Machine,” two former inmates meet in a completely different environment since they’ve turned their lives around, at least until one finds money more tempting than freedom. In “The No-Knock,” a crime writer’s life is turned upside down when federal agents ransack his house, looking for evidence that his eldest son committed a crime.
Family history, as well as the history of some major acts of violence and disaster in Washington DC, are at the core of “Knickerbocker,” when a woman leading her grandmother through reminiscences brings her into a whole different world. And in the title novella, a young Greek man comes of age during two hostage crises in Washington, and he learns a valuable lesson from a coworker.
While I missed the whipsmart intensity of Pelecanos' crime novels, these novellas reminded me how well he creates characters that reside somewhere in the grey space between good and bad. There are familiar themes in this book, of family and heritage, over the struggle to do the right thing, and issues of racism and racial inequity. I’ve always loved the research he does for his books, and it’s gotten to the point where I’ve been here long enough to remember many of the places he writes about!!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.
Check out my best reads of 2023 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2023.html.
March 13, 2024
An interestingly, perhaps oddly reflexive collection, wherein what seem like stand-ins for young Pelecanos and maybe older David Simon (in a story about the lasting reverberations of a no-knock raid based on shaky justification) learn moral lessons about right conduct. And also a bunch of what feel like kiss-offs to Hollywood about how much mainstream TV and movies flatten racial realities into consoling narratives--or, I dunno, maybe it's blowing off steam? (I will be first in line for the King Suckerman movie, I'm saying.) The narrative strategies here are repeatedly unexpected--this feels like, of all things, a mix between someone like Alice Munro, or really Joan Silber, and Pelecanos: stories cover, in one case, over a century, in three different time frames, nearly twenty years in another, and a decade or so in a third. That first story is the best to my mind, as it ends up not at all where or how you'd expect, though to be honest none quite goes where you expect. This has his usual scrupulous attention to dress and clothing and cross-racial partnerships, business, emotional, and romantic, along with incredibly fluid prose. Genre? Semi-crime-adjacent, maybe? Most of his novels hover in that zone where hustling shades into lawlessness, but these add up to sketches for a neighborhood-DC epic; there are no politicians here, but there are a bunch of street-level stories: racist violence after WWI, a theater collapse in 1923, the Hanafi Muslim violence in the 70s, post-Iraq War police militarization. That said, not all of these are exactly "stories" in a formal narrative sense, with the classic rising action and resolution; this design works and fits the point in the first story, where philosophical attitudes toward life as both truth and surrender to inanition are a central idea, but the last one, for instance, hits its climax and then just sort of wanders into a Who's-Who level survey of the main character's life after this one period. (It feels like some sort of how-I-got-here story.) Still, not what I expected, and all the better for it. Excited to be somewhat surprised after reading more than twenty of his novels.
March 18, 2024
A book consisting of four novellas: "The Amusement Machine," "The No-Knock," "Knickerbocker," and "Owning Up." Even though the stories pretty much follow the usual Pelecanos formula: set in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia corridors, often set in the 1970's and in this case, several stories bounce between the past and present, and a co-mingling of multi-generational immigrant and black families and their culture and ethics. Pelecanos draws back on his own family and work history, as well.
One thing I noticed this time around in reading him, especially the story "Owning Up," was how with a paragraph, or a few simple sentences, he can throw you back immediately into a time and place that I lived through. When you think you remember so much (and in my case, I do,) then he writes of other things like the Islamic hostage situation where you lived through it, yet you've forgotten so much. He did say in one interview recently that he wanted to capture some of these memories and events on paper before he himself forgets what it was like--and I know he made heavy use of the varied historical societies and sources (Martin Luther King Library) that we have with such important newspapers, photographs and first hand accounts, to flush out his own memories. I found myself having to put the book down several times because something in the story jumped out at me and reminded me of so many things: families, friends, schools, fashion, early teen employment, cars.
The author is well loved in the Washington area, and for good reason. He writes the truth about a time and place and it's people.
One thing I noticed this time around in reading him, especially the story "Owning Up," was how with a paragraph, or a few simple sentences, he can throw you back immediately into a time and place that I lived through. When you think you remember so much (and in my case, I do,) then he writes of other things like the Islamic hostage situation where you lived through it, yet you've forgotten so much. He did say in one interview recently that he wanted to capture some of these memories and events on paper before he himself forgets what it was like--and I know he made heavy use of the varied historical societies and sources (Martin Luther King Library) that we have with such important newspapers, photographs and first hand accounts, to flush out his own memories. I found myself having to put the book down several times because something in the story jumped out at me and reminded me of so many things: families, friends, schools, fashion, early teen employment, cars.
The author is well loved in the Washington area, and for good reason. He writes the truth about a time and place and it's people.
June 25, 2024
George Pelecanos has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest crime authors in the world today, and this rather minor collection of stories shows why. These four novellas are a little more than a short story and have a fairly rich narrative arc, but as usual Pelecanos focuses on the characters, each of whom has made a very bad choice with substantial consequences. The only thing really unifying them is, as I said, the bad choice and the Washington DC location, pretty much SOP for Pelecanos. I call these works “minor” not because they’re not good (they are, very good, maybe even great), but because the novella format constrains the narrative sweep that is often a key component in Pelecanos’ best work. With all four, I felt like we were just getting started when the story ends — but again, since he is such a craftsman in this genre, that might just be a consequence of the reader caring about the character, which is hardly a flaw. This whole collection feels like the work of a quieter but no less profound Pelecanos, which makes it appealing to fans and accessible to those new to his work. Recommended.
Grade: A-
Grade: A-
May 30, 2024
Four short stories by one of the best writers I know. Whilst objectively a crime writer, he just 'gets' people - in all their messy ordinariness.
The central wheel in these stories is Washington, DC and all of its varied history.
Memories of people who lived in the early 1920s are related to an aspiring writer and those memories are magnificent.
A family tries to recover after a no-knock police raid the impact of which echoes down the years of the individuals.
Another story concerns two ex-cons who meet again by chance, but the act of one nearly causes devastation to the other.
The final story about a teenage boy growing into manhood and the characters he meets who shape his character is stunning in its simplicity and impact.
A fabulous and easy read, not a word is wasted.
The central wheel in these stories is Washington, DC and all of its varied history.
Memories of people who lived in the early 1920s are related to an aspiring writer and those memories are magnificent.
A family tries to recover after a no-knock police raid the impact of which echoes down the years of the individuals.
Another story concerns two ex-cons who meet again by chance, but the act of one nearly causes devastation to the other.
The final story about a teenage boy growing into manhood and the characters he meets who shape his character is stunning in its simplicity and impact.
A fabulous and easy read, not a word is wasted.
February 9, 2024
Four Novellas by one of my most favorite Authors. This is an easy and very entertaining read. Perhaps the most interesting of the Four Novellas is the one titled: "The No-Knock". The title refers to "The No-knock warrant(s)" that are issued by a judge and allow law enforcement to enter a property without immediate prior notification of the residents, such as by knocking or ringing a doorbell." These types of warrants are the most dangerous as they can easily and have resulted in either occupants or policemen being killed or wounded. The Author personally experienced a "No Knock Warrant" himself when, in August 2009, his home in Silver Springs, Maryland was raided by the Police with a "No Knock Warrant". This Novella thus has to be "up close and personal" for sure.
February 18, 2024
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, finding a few themes running through the collection: a love of TV shows (including nostalgic references to crime shows), kids who are from good homes yet can't help screwing up, fathers loving their sons despite their mistakes, inheritances from father to son, "history is continuum...past, present and future all one thing." They say that books with adolescent narrators are coming of age stories, but I think that phrase could also be used when the narrator is older and looking back on their life, measuring their memories, their life experiences in love and loss. I usually don't care for short story collections but I've read almost everything by this author and I absolutely adore his writing. Highly recommend this collection.
August 14, 2024
I am highly biased here as someone who has met and really likes the author. I know enough of his personal history to see him and his life in the stories he writes. All that said, I read this in a day because I was bought in all the way. There is a morality to George’s books—good people do bad things but we are disappointed rather than betrayed when they do. The stories in Owning Up are about what could have been, what almost was and the twists of fate that push us down one path over another. I also really like the way he is bringing some half forgotten historic episodes in DC (the streets of DC, not the power halls) back to the forefront. A little history lesson always helps a fiction book in my world.
February 8, 2024
Bought this book without realizing it was a set of four novellas, so disappointed that it was not a novel. I guess there is sort of a theme uniting them, but I can't quite put voice to it.
The writing is good, and of course Pelecanos trots out his love for and knowledge of DC, the entertainment business, criminals, and Greeks. But I feel like these novellas suffer a little bit from workshop disease, a term I use for writing that is trying to impress fellow writers more than entertain readers. In traditional modernist fashion, they have lots of great sentences but often lack a conventional beginning, middle, and end.
But great reading nonetheless.
The writing is good, and of course Pelecanos trots out his love for and knowledge of DC, the entertainment business, criminals, and Greeks. But I feel like these novellas suffer a little bit from workshop disease, a term I use for writing that is trying to impress fellow writers more than entertain readers. In traditional modernist fashion, they have lots of great sentences but often lack a conventional beginning, middle, and end.
But great reading nonetheless.
February 25, 2024
Readers often love it when their favorite authors make it to the big bucks by having their work adapted for TV, movies or streaming services. On the other hand...
George Pelecanos gave us 21 novels, most of them before he got sucked into The Wire, Treme, and other soul-wrenchingly great cinema. Ah, well, good for him. And good for us that we now have this volume of shorter works to educate us.
School in the rearview mirror is where most people seem to want it. Yet we seem to want to learn, to be 'up on things', too. Pelecanos tasked himself with teaching us some history by giving us enjoyable stories. He succeeded.
Highly Recommended
George Pelecanos gave us 21 novels, most of them before he got sucked into The Wire, Treme, and other soul-wrenchingly great cinema. Ah, well, good for him. And good for us that we now have this volume of shorter works to educate us.
School in the rearview mirror is where most people seem to want it. Yet we seem to want to learn, to be 'up on things', too. Pelecanos tasked himself with teaching us some history by giving us enjoyable stories. He succeeded.
Highly Recommended
May 23, 2024
There is nothing exceptional about the 4 stories in this book, but each one is good and an enjoyable read. Most of the stories have an African American, Jewish, and Greek character. Each of the characters are genuine. Pelecanos demonstrates the many negative effects of the execution of no knock warrants on people for many years afterward. I loved how The Amusement Machine addresses what is the meaning in life. Each of the stories examines the role of race in society, but the Knickerbocker addresses the effects of racism most directly. If you are a fan of Pelecanos and need a quick fix, then I recommend “Owning Up.”
February 27, 2024
George Pelecanos has gifted us some superb books. The Big Blowdown is a stone classic. After a couple of lacklustre efforts featuring forgettable ex-Vet Spero Lucas – a low level Peter Ash he disappeared from the literary scene for a long flirtation with Television and reappeared a couple of years ago with the disappointing Man From Uptown. This new unexpected offering Owning Up shows his literary aspirations It’s a pleasant entertaining read but won’t set the world on fire.
April 11, 2024
Four novellas tackle pivotal moments for four young characters - a man who commits check fraud and tries an acting career, a wealthy writer who endures a no-knock warrant, a woman who interviews elderly survivors of a building collapse for her first book attempt, and a high school student who works part-time and becomes enthralled with the wrong co-worker and neglects the one who comes to his rescue. Life moves swiftly, and the characters tend to reflect on the pivotal points long afterward.
May 15, 2024
An interesting collection of stories from a favorite author. I was particularly impressed by the story “The No-Knock. A look at the long term effects of a no knock raid on the other family members who had no connection to the crime in question. The stories in general look at the issue of unintended consequences, how our actions affect not just those immediately involved but others within our spear.
Not a typical Pelecanos read but worthwhile reflecting on.
Not a typical Pelecanos read but worthwhile reflecting on.
February 10, 2024
I love George Pelecanos and have consumed everything he's ever done. Having said that, I'm two stories in and I have yet to understand the point. These stories are typically engaging and well- written, but so far, fall flat. Maybe the last two will wow me, but I'm not feeling it. I'll update review if I'm proven wrong.
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