I was thrilled to ask some questions of one of my favorite writers, George Pelecanos - the author of seventeen crime novels set in and around Washington D.C. His latest, The Cut features a brand new protagonist, Spero Lucas, an Iraq vet now making a living as an investigator for a defense attorney. When Spero takes a job from a high profile criminal, he learns (not quick enough) that the risks may not be worth his titular percentage.
Though he’s brought a powerful sense of time and place to other locales as a writer on television, (contemporary Baltimore – The Wire, post-Katrina New Orleans – Treme, and even the Pacific theater of WWII – Pacific), it’s D.C. that is clearly his muse. The sensory detail layered in decades throughout his work nearly qualifies the city as his greatest creation. I asked him about its importance.
D.C. is very important to me as a writer because it gives me my inspiration and my material. Everything I do is grounded in the reality of Washington. The Cut, in fact was written from the perspective of my bicycle, my Jeep, and my eyes as I walked the city at night. My parents grew up in town and attended the inner-city high school that is featured in the book. I’ve never lived outside the area. I have a love for Washington, but also, I hope, a clear-headed understanding of its problems.
Those problems could take over a lesser-writer’s narrative mojo, but I'd say you manage to bring weighty issues into crime sagas without derailing the action.
Urban crime fiction is a natural gateway to the exploration of social issues. Ideally, the ideas should emerge through character, dialogue, and atmosphere, rather than from a soap box. I’m raising questions for which there are no easy answers. If I knew the answers, I’d be writing manifestos. Basically, I like to tell a good story. You know, campfire s***.
That story-telling is definitely switched “on” in The Cut.
I had read some things on the internet after my last few books, saying that I had gone “soft.” And also, I’d been reading interviews with some of the younger crime writers out there, who are jacked up on what they’re doing and are full of piss and vinegar, as all writers should be. I’m the competitive type, no question. So with The Cut, I guess I’m saying, I’m still here. I get jacked up, too.
Spero Lucas feels to me like he can support more books…
I’ve never written more than three novels in a series, though I have put Derek Strange in books at different stages in his life. I’m going to write another Spero Lucas book because he’s still in my head. Commerce will have something to do with my plans, of course. But I have to be interested.
Is there a book that you’re most proud of?
There are novels I like for different reasons. The Big Blowdown is the most propulsive story I’ve come up with, but I’d love to have the book back, because I’m a better writer now than I was in 1996. It was the first of the D.C. Quartet, which was a turning point for me. Hard Revolution is the one that I hope makes the lead in my obit. I put everything I had into that book, and it was the culmination of my life’s obsessions. I think The Night Gardener is a pretty strong crime novel. Funny that the ones you think of as “small,” like Drama City and Shoedog, come up most as being reader favorites. So what works and what doesn’t is not really for me to say.
How about in your television work?
Episode 311 (“Middle Ground”) of The Wire is the screenplay I’m most happy with. That’s the one that starts with Brother Mouzone and Omar facing off in the street, and ends with the two of them hunting down Stringer Bell. The scene between Stringer and Avon on the rooftop is one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever written in any medium. The actors, Idris Elba and Wood Harris, brought it to life, as did the director, Joe Chappelle.
Any interest in adapting your books?
I’ve adapted Shoedog and The Big Blowdown, and hope to get Shoedog made soon. Hopefully I’ll get behind the camera someday, too. That is on my list. I took point guard for The Knicks off that same list long ago.
The Cut is available now.
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
