The lucky 13th novel for crime novelist Pelecanos (who also writes for HBO's "The Wire") is set in Washington D.C., where ex-con Lorenzo Brown is trying to stay clean in his new profession as a Humane Society officer, but finds it difficult when a war between local drug gangs threatens to engulf him while his parole officer has troubles of her own.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Booklist Bill Ott
Though set on the same streets as Pelecanos' earlier books, this novel works on a smaller scale, lingering on the everyday, "the smiling faces and sad, all kinds of faces in between." It's not a view we see much in genre fiction, making it all the more welcome. [15 Feb 2005, p.1037]
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Outstanding
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Chicago Sun-Times Gary Dretzka
He's a writer of enormous talent, whose work we've come to anticipate with great excitement. So far, Pelecanos has given us no reason to expect anything less than a terrific ride.
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Outstanding
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Chicago Tribune Dick Adler
Drama City has the natural shape of a good movie. But it's also a thoroughly satisfying read, making us hope that Brown and Lopez will make another appearance. [3 Apr 2005, p.C3]
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Outstanding
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Margaret Cannon
Pelecanos is great at character studies and cranking the suspense. Drama City , set in the seedier areas of Washington, D.C., has both, plus a terrific plot. If you liked Hard Revolution , you will love this one. [2 Apr 2005, p.D11]
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Outstanding
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
There is a fierce inevitability to the way George Pelecanos's new book unfolds. Drama City is unleashed, not simply set in motion.
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Outstanding
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The Guardian Maxim Jakubowski
Pelecanos's view of life has always been bleak and this is no exception, but he displays such a ferocious understanding of street reality and an empathy for America's downtrodden that his books transcend their pulp origins.
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Favorable
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Entertainment Weekly Daniel Fierman
But it works, for exactly the same reason "The Wire" — the fantastic HBO series Pelecanos is a producer on — works, by turning the day-to-day struggles of working people in American cities into a melancholy, rich poetry.
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Favorable
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Kirkus Reviews
The dog-eat-dog metaphor, borrowed perhaps from the film "Amores Perros," provides a brutal, tender new way for Pelecanos to get at his great subject: the miraculous survival of lilies among the toxic weeds of the Nation's Capital. [15 Jan 2005, p.79]
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Favorable
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Library Journal Craig Shufelt
Pelecanos's writing is intelligent and engaging, and the characters of Lorenzo and Rachel are well formed and all too believable. [15 March 2005, p.76]
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Mixed
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Publishers Weekly
Hope and redemption are fine subjects for many novelists, but it's the stark world of violence and despair that this author really owns.
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Mixed
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San Francisco Chronicle David Lazarus
He could have just as easily called it "Melodrama City"... Drama City grows surprisingly squishy. Pelecanos is showing his softer side here.
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Unfavorable
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Washington Post Guy Johnson
Stereotypes rob a book of its vitality and mystery and, more dangerously, they are divisive, misleading readers with faulty images of people and cultures beyond their ken. Pelecanos has written a book in which the characters are lost without translation.
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