One of the highest compliments I can give to a writer is that they make me sympathize with their characters. Especially if they're not particularly likable. Sometimes the trick is pulled off by giving them an interior monologue that lets us understand them in a way their contemporaries do not. Another is by giving them a quality we want so much for ourselves - smart, tough, cool - that we overlook their negative traits.
But the best writers can do something altogether different.
Snitching is one of those oft-maligned professions that just doesn't get a fair shake in fiction. Most of the time, just the mantle of 'snitch' seems to be all the development these characters need. We read it or hear it and immediately we know who we're supposed to conjure - sleazy, weak-willed, turncoats of dubious moral stripe and questionable hygiene.
Well, not no more.
Christopher Goffard's debut novel, Sitch Jacket places us cozily, (uncomfortably so), into the shoes of Benny, a sleazy, weak-willed, turncoat of dubious moral stripe and questionable hygiene, (as attested to by his wife - Use a Q-tip, Benny!) and dares us to uh, like him.
When he gets caught between his two idols, Gus "Mad Dog" Miller, a burly, tattooed, barfly with some great Nam stories and the slick undercover narco who turned Benny out, Benny's faced with some hard choices. Don't worry, he doesn't turn any miracle switch and redeem himself with an act or attitude of moral accountability, and he finds ways to blame other people for his own short comings, (the rationalizing he does for his snitching is beautiful), but we are with him through every bad choice he plunges into. We don't wish him ill, but we don't want him to unrealistically change his character either.
I'm gonna go out on a pretty sturdy looking limb and call it the best book about a snitch since The Friends of Eddie Coyle and probably destined for a similar cult in years to come.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle, by the way was made into a great film starring an against type Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle and directed by Peter Yates, (Bullitt, Mother, Jugs and Speed). Of course, "the snitch" may soon have a more honored place in pop-culture thanks to Andre Royo's incredible and humane turn as Bubbles, on The Wire, but till that time, enjoy Snitch Jacket while it's still a novelty.
You ever been surprised by the character you'd get behind?
