Wednesday, September 01, 2010

A Firing Offense by George P. Pelecanos (Serpent's Tail 1992)


I first met Karen in a bar in Southeast, a new wave club near the Eastern Market run by an Arab named Haddad whom everyone called HaDaddy-O.

This was late in '79 or early in 1980, the watershed years that saw the debut release of the Pretenders, Graham Parker's Squeezing Out Sparks, and Elvis Costello's Get Happy, three of the finest albums ever produced. That I get nostalgic now when I hear "You Can't Be Too Strong" or "New Amsterdam" or when I smell cigarette smoke in a bar or feel sweat drip down my back in a hot club, may seem incredible today - especially to those who get misty-eyed over Sinatra, or even at the first few chords of "Satisfaction" - but I'm talking about my generation.

4 comments:

robert said...

Hells bells, you're a fast reader! You should get paid for this - go pro, dude ;>)

Imposs1904 said...

'fraid I'm going through a burst of reading at the moment.

It won't last. It never does.

bob said...

A superb book. Although I prefer the DC Quartet series.

Imposs1904 said...

Bob,

at the moment I'd have to agree with you but things might change after I read the other books in the series.