THE GREY PLANE

Reviewed by Christopher Patrick Steffen 

There was a period of time (maybe a decade ago?) when Elmore Leonard was the man about town. Tarantino had made Jackie Brown, Soderberg made Out of Sight, and someone (I can’t remember) made Get Shorty. I waited out the initial flush of Leonard-excitement and didn’t read any of his books. Over the next few years I read interviews with Elmore Leonard and started formulating the idea that Leonard was a literary writer and not just a storyteller.

And then I read Freaky Deaky. . . .

Was that too easy?

Freaky Deaky is not literature. It is storytelling at best and even then a bit boring. The plot revolves around several cliché characters who serve as narrative functions more than people. My assumption is that Leonard has better books. For that reason I don’t want to entirely dismiss him for what might have been an off book. I will read some of his others.

However, avoid THIS book. I had hoped for a Dan Brown (yes, I’ve read them all): something quick and suspenseful. Something I could read on an airplane or on the beach, drunk or sober. Freaky Deaky met these criteria so I shouldn’t be bitter. Nevertheless, I am bitter, because even though I was capable of plodding through his flat dialogue and shallow plot, I had still hoped for an entertaining twist or turn. There was nothing like that here.