Read Time:1 Minute, 35 Second
Jackie Brown was originally published as Rum Punch—and was
then renamed after it became a Quentin Tarantino film. It might surprise (and baffle)
readers, then, that there is no Jackie Brown in the book. It sure baffled
me.
There is, however, a Jackie Burke. She’s a flight attendant who’s
caught bringing cash from Jamaica to Miami for gun smuggler Ordell Robbie. All kinds of
law enforcement agencies are after Ordell, so when they catch Jackie with $10,000 and a
little bit of cocaine in her bag, they offer her a deal—they’ll drop the charges if she
leads them to Ordell.
Jackie decides that the safest plan is to play both
sides—and then take the half-million that Ordell’s been trying to get her to transport
and make a run for it. So while Ordell is gathering his three girlfriends and his ex-con
buddy, Louis, to help him get the cash while avoiding the cops, Jackie is planning a con
of her own—with the help of Max Cherry, a fed-up bail bondsman.
Even if I
overlooked the title-character-less nature of this book, I still can’t say that I liked
it. The book itself was well-written and crisp, but the characters were soggy. I kept
telling myself that it would be okay—that it was just taking me a while to get into the
story, and it would pick up sooner or later. But it never did. I never found a
character that really mattered to me, and the story never really excited me (which could,
of course, be because I didn’t care about any of the characters).
So while
I’m not going to give up on Elmore Leonard yet (mostly because I kinda liked the movie
Get Shorty), I’ve definitely given up on Jackie Brown—whoever the heck she
is.
Kristin Dreyer Kramer has been writing in some form or another (usually when she was supposed to be doing something else) since the ripe old age of ten—when she, her cousin, and their two Cabbage Patch Dolls formed the Poo Authors’ Club. After a short career in advertising, Kristin got sick of always saying nice things about stuff that didn’t deserve it—so now she spends her days criticizing things, and she’s much happier for it.
Since creating NightsAndWeekends.com in February of 2002, Kristin has spent her life surrounded by piles and piles of books and movies—so many that her office has become a kind of entertainment obstacle course.
As if her writing and editing responsibilities for N&W.com weren’t enough to keep her out of trouble, Kristin also hosts a number of weekly radio shows: Reel Discovery, Shelf Discovery, and On the Marquee. She’s also a proud member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (CriticsChoice.com), the Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA.org), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS.org), and the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC.Wordpress.com).
Kristin lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna. She welcomes questions, comments, and fan mail at kdk@nightsandweekends.com.
Happy
0
0 %
Sad
0
0 %
Excited
0
0 %
Sleepy
0
0 %
Angry
0
0 %
Surprise
0
0 %
Kristin Dreyer Kramer has been writing in some form or another (usually when she was supposed to be doing something else) since the ripe old age of ten—when she, her cousin, and their two Cabbage Patch Dolls formed the Poo Authors’ Club. After a short career in advertising, Kristin got sick of always saying nice things about stuff that didn’t deserve it—so now she spends her days criticizing things, and she’s much happier for it.
Since creating NightsAndWeekends.com in February of 2002, Kristin has spent her life surrounded by piles and piles of books and movies—so many that her office has become a kind of entertainment obstacle course.
As if her writing and editing responsibilities for N&W.com weren’t enough to keep her out of trouble, Kristin also hosts a number of weekly radio shows: Reel Discovery, Shelf Discovery, and On the Marquee. She’s also a proud member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (CriticsChoice.com), the Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA.org), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS.org), and the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC.Wordpress.com).
Kristin lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna. She welcomes questions, comments, and fan mail at kdk@nightsandweekends.com.
0
0
