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A Firing Offense
George P. Pelecanos
Serpent's Tail paperback, 224 pages, £5.99
Review by Gerald Houghton (1999)

One part Willeford, one part Woodrell, one part, well, whoever fits the bill (it’s the bit with all the plot at the very end; after we've had our fun), A Firing Offense is more – much more – than just the sum of its parts.

Washington D.C. 'A city where the only common community interest was to get safely through another day.’ Mid-1980s. Thirtysomething Nick Stefanos works advertising paste-ups for Nutty Nathan’s: blow-out sales and shady deals. Swap the straplines. Oh yes. Then he gets this call from the grandfather of a kid he befriended at work. Jimmy Pence’s gone missing. Sure, he shaved his head and hung with that punk crowd, but that doesn't MEAN he’d go missing. And he kissed grandpappy at the door that last time. So, can Nick help? Being buddies and all, and being as how Jimmy and Nick are – were – alike: speed metal, rec drugs, rebel boy shit.

That’s your plot. Which is perfunctory. As Pelecanos well knows. Because almost as soon as it’s introduced, he forgets about it. Much of the first third of A Firing Offense is about drinking and drugs and BB guns and casual abuse in the electrical retail trade. Honest. The spiralling madness of wild days and crazy nights on the floor, selling you – us – what we don’t need. Sound dull? It’s (pardon me) electrifying, gill-packed with the coal-hearted misanthropy of Charles Willeford on a bad, black day. THAT good. Daniel Woodrell we think of when Nick and his buddy take off for a brief sojourn in country. Highways, bars and beers. Slack, loose, all but pointless – and absolutely riveting.

Getting the idea yet? Pelecanos keeps the plot afloat only long enough to get us aboard the boat. It’s the bait, not the hook. Which is why the book’s at its slackest – that’s slack like a taut fishing-line is slack – at the end, when he suddenly realises he ought to tie something up. So he wastes half a dozen bad guys and gives Nick a reason to go on. All’s fair.

No, forget that and just know Pelecanos is GREAT. There’s some sly politics, some smart action stuff, his writing tight, full of personality but never showy. And, like prime-rib Willeford, his audacity can fair take your breath away. Great because any book where the lead listens to Public Enemy, Billy Bragg and Pere Ubu can’t be all bad, right? Right. And if nothing else it’ll make you think twice about shopping in Dixons ever again.