Book review: ‘The Martini Shot’
I grant that in the past I have neglected to mention certain aspects of the books that I review that may not be suitable for younger audiences. In most cases, I don’t think it was an issue, because the presence of adult language and themes did not usually detract from one’s personal enjoyment of the work, or were not major enough to bring up. However, with acclaimed crime writer George Pelecanos’s collection of short stories, “The Martini Shot,” these elements have become such a major component to the plots that I can no longer ignore them. From this point forward, reader discretion is advised.
I think it’s important to keep in mind when reading this that I have no problem with the presence of adult themes. But I think when adding them into a work, it’s important to consider the relevance of each one to the plot. It’s disappointing to me, then, that all seven of the short stories and the title novella in the collection have the same motivators driving their plots: sex, violence and drugs. Of course, these themes are prevalent in media for a good reason, but it comes off as unoriginal writing when all separate plots revolve around them.
One positive thing I can say about “The Martini Shot” is that the writing is phenomenal. The details in each story’s scenes is easily the highlight of the collection. The titular novella is the best overall, and the most unique. The main character is a writer for a police drama who gets wrapped up in something much bigger when one of his coworkers is murdered. The opinions he has of his job and his crew are very entertaining. It’s especially entertaining because Pelecanos has done some similar work himself, making these reactions genuine. One particularly funny gag occurs when the writer talks to police and criminals during the investigation. He is unfamiliar with the slang they use and makes a note to himself to use it later, and the words appear in his next script. The script element is also clever. Occasionally, the style will switch to a script like the writer would create. This grabs the reader’s attention and breaks up any monotony that may have developed. The details I mentioned earlier are bumped up even higher in the novella due to its longer length. Though the scenes with the writer and his girlfriend do little to further the plot and are only there to serve a very specific purpose.
I can’t sing the praises of the short stories in the same way. Every protagonist in the other stories somehow gets involved in the drug trade or other illegal activities. Though the characters are diverse in setting and background, they all react similarly to their situation – that is, without much concern. They don’t care much about the fact that the police could go after them, even though this situation is repeated multiple times throughout the stories. It makes the characters unsympathetic when they do get caught, even though there are many reasons they shouldn’t be. The one exception to this is “Chosen,” which focuses on an adoptive father who has to deal with the strains on his family when one of his children goes down this path. It’s not only creative, but it also serves as a prequel to another one of Pelecanos’s stories. It still manages to stand alone as the best short story of the batch.
It’s hard to make a recommendation for this book as a whole, but if the reader is comfortable with R-rated themes, I can easily recommend “The Martini Shot” novella, at least, and “Chosen.” The rest, I can’t get into. It seems to me like the author couldn’t quite get the length of “The Martini Shot” to a point where he could sell it standalone, so he threw in the other stories as a sort of bonus. It’s just a shame that the bonus ends up detracting from the overall package.
Jeremy Farbman is a sophomore at Mt. Lebanon High School.