George Pelecanos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Pelecanos | |
---|---|
Born | 1957 Washington, D.C., United States |
Occupation | Novelist, Journalist, Television Writer |
Nationality | American |
Subjects | Crime fiction |
- "Pelecanos" redirects here. For the private investigator and Federal convict and defendant, see Anthony Pellicano.
George Pelecanos (born 1957 in Washington, D.C.) is an American author of detective fiction set primarily in the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. He is also a film and television producer and a television writer. He has worked extensively on the HBO series The Wire.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Novelist
Greek-American by descent, Pelecanos's early novels were written in the first person voice of Nick Stefanos, a Greek D.C. resident and some-time private investigator.
After the success of his first four novels, the Stefanos-narrated A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, and Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, and the non-series Shoedog (some characters do cross over), Pelecanos switched his narrative style considerably and expanded the scope of his fiction with his D.C. Quartet. He has commented that he did not feel that he had the ability to be this ambitious earlier in his career.[1] The quartet, often compared to James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet, spanned several decades and communities within the changing population of Washington. Now writing in the third person, Pelecanos relegated Stefanos to a supporting character and introduced his first "salt and pepper" team of crime fighters, Dimitri Karras and Marcus Clay.
In The Big Blowdown, set a generation before Karras and Clay would appear (the 1950s), Pelecanos followed the lives of dozens of D.C. residents, tracking the challenges and changes that the second half of the twentieth century presented to Washingtonians. King Suckerman, set in the 1970s and generally regarded as the fans' favorite, introduced the recurring theme of basketball in Pelecanos' fiction. Typically, he employs the sport as a symbol of cooperation amongst the races, suggesting the dynamism of D.C. as reflective of the good will generated by multi-ethnic pick up games. However, he also indulges the reverse of the equation, wherein the basketball court becomes the site of unresolved hostilities. In such cases, violent criminal behavior typically emerges amongst the participants, usually escalating the mystery. The Sweet Forever (1980s) and Shame the Devil (1990s) closed the quartet and Pelecanos retired Stefanos and the other characters that populated the novels (Stefanos and other characters do re-appear in subsequent works).
In 2001, he introduced a new team of private detectives, Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, as the protagonists of Right as Rain. They have subsequently starred in the author's more recent works Hell to Pay and Soul Circus. While these books have cemented the author's reputation as one of the best current American crime writers and sold consistently, they have not garnered the critical and cult affection his D.C. quartet did. Rather, they seem to be continuing the author's well received formula of witty protagonists chasing unconflicted criminals behind the backdrop of popular culture references and D.C. landmarks.
Perhaps sensing this, Pelecanos again switched his focus in his 2004 novel, Hard Revolution, taking one of his new detectives, Derek Strange, back in time to his early days on the D.C. police force. In another interesting move, Pelecanos attached a CD to the book itself, making it perhaps the first novel to literally include its own soundtrack.
In 2005, Pelecanos saw another novel published, Drama City. This book revisited the examination of dogfighting begun in his book Hell To Pay. Pelecanos is a dog owner and has written about his views of dogfighting.[2]
In 2006 he published The Night Gardener, which was a major change of style and which featured a cameo of himself. Pelecanos has also published short fiction in a variety of anthologies and magazines, including Measures of Poison and Usual Suspects. His reviews have been published in The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.
His next novel, The Turnaround is scheduled to be published in August 2008.
[edit] The Wire
Pelecanos has written and produced for HBO's The Wire and is part of a literary circle with non-fiction writer and The Wire producer David Simon and Laura Lippman.
Simon sought out Pelecanos after reading his work. Simon was recommended his novels several times but did not read his work initially because of territorial prejudice; Simon is from Baltimore.[3] Once Simon received a further recommendations including one from Lippman he tried The Sweet Forever and changed his mind.[4] The two writers have much in common including a childhood in Silver Spring, Maryland, attendance at the University of Maryland and their interest in the "fate of the American city and the black urban poor".[4] They first met at the funeral of a mutual friend shortly after Simon delivered the pilot episode.[4] Simon pitched Pelecanos the idea of The Wire as a novel for television about the American city as Pelecanos drove him home.[4] Pelecanos was excited about the prospect of writing something more than simple mystery for television as he strives to exceed the boundaries of genre in his novels.[4]
Pelecanos joined the writing staff[5] and wrote the first season episode "Cleaning Up."[6][7] He joined the production team for the show's second season[8] and wrote the episodes "Duck and Cover"[9][10] and "Bad Dreams."[11][12] He continued to write and produce for the shows third season[13] and wrote the episodes "Hamsterdam,"[14][15] and "Middle Ground."[16][17] Simon and Pelecanos' collaboration on "Middle Ground" received the show's only Emmy nomination to date, in the category Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.[18] Pelecanos left the production staff of The Wire after the show's third season to concentrate on writing The Night Gardener.[19] His role as a producer was taken on by Eric Overmyer.[19] Pelecanos continued to work on the show as a writer and contributed to the story and wrote the teleplay for the penultimate episode of the fourth season "That's Got His Own".[20][21] Simon has commented that he missed having Pelecanos working on the show full-time but was a fan of The Night Gardener.[19] Simon also spent time embedded with a homicide unit while researching his own book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Pelecanos has written a seventh episode of The Wire for the show's fifth and final season.[4]
[edit] Personal life
As of 2006, Pelecanos lives in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife and three children.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- Shoedog (1994)
- Drama City (2005)
- The Night Gardener (2006)
- The Turnaround (2008)
[edit] Nick Stefanos Series
- A Firing Offense (1992)
- Nick's Trip (1993)
- Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go (1995)
- Stefanos Novels: Down By The River, A Firing Offence, Nick's Trip (omnibus) (2002)
[edit] D.C. Quartet Series
- The Big Blowdown (1996)
- King Suckerman (1997)
- The Sweet Forever (1998)
- Shame the Devil (2000)
[edit] Derek Strange and Terry Quinn Series
- Right as Rain (2001)
- Hell to Pay (2002)
- Soul Circus (2003)
- Hard Revolution (2004)
- Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus (omnibus) (2005)
[edit] Editor
- D.C. Noir (2006)
- Best American Mystery Stories 2008 (2008)
[edit] Filmography
- The Pacific (co-producer)
- The Wire (producer)
- Episode 1.12 "Cleaning Up"[6][7] (teleplay)
- Episode 2.08 "Duck and Cover"[9][10] (story and teleplay)
- Episode 2.11 "Bad Dreams"[11][12] (story and teleplay)
- Episode 3.04 "Hamsterdam"[14][15] (story and teleplay)
- Episode 3.11 "Middle Ground"[16][17] (story and teleplay)
- Episode 4.12 "That's Got His Own"[20][21] (story and teleplay)
[edit] External links
- George Pelecanos' official web site
- George Pelecanos at the Internet Movie Database
- The Night Gardener Reviews at Metacritic.com
- Drama City Reviews at Metacritic.com
- Extensive audio interview on public radio program The Sound of Young America
- George P. Pelecanos at the Internet Book List
- "Ten Thousand Bullets" interview in City Pages, July 19, 2006
- "George Pelecanos on 'The Wire' and D.C. pulp fiction" outtakes from the City Pages interview, July 19, 2006
[edit] References
- ^ Robert Birnbaum. Interview: George Pelecanos. Identity Theory. Retrieved on 2007-09-17.
- ^ George Pelecanos. Dogfighting's Poisonous Politics. New Republic. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
- ^ Mary Alice Blackwell. Fun comes down to 'The Wire'. Daily Progress. Retrieved on 2006-09-27.
- ^ a b c d e f Margaret Talbot (2007). Stealing Life. The New Yorker. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ Season 1 crew. HBO (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ a b Episode guide - episode 12 The Hunt. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-31.
- ^ a b "Cleaning Up". David Simon, Ed Burns, George P. Pelecanos. The Wire. HBO. 2002-09-01. No. 12, season 1.
- ^ Season 2 crew. HBO (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ a b Episode guide - episode 21 duck and cover. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-06-22.
- ^ a b "Duck and Cover". David Simon, George P. Pelecanos. The Wire. HBO. 2003-07-27. No. 08, season 2.
- ^ a b Episode guide - episode 24 bad dreams. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-06-22.
- ^ a b "Bad Dreams". David Simon, George P. Pelecanos. The Wire. HBO. 2003-08-17. No. 11, season 2.
- ^ Season 3 crew. HBO (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ a b Episode guide - episode 29 Amsterdam. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-08-07.
- ^ a b "Amsterdam". David Simon, Ed Burns. The Wire. HBO. 2004-10-10. No. 04, season 3.
- ^ a b Episode guide - episode 36 middle ground. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-08-09.
- ^ a b "Middle Ground". David Simon, George P. Pelecanos. The Wire. HBO. 2004-12-12. No. 11, season 3.
- ^ Emmy award archives. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
- ^ a b c Exclusive David Simon Q&A. AOL (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ a b Episode guide - episode 49 That's Got His Own. HBO (2006). Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
- ^ a b "That's Got His Own". Ed Burns, George Pelecanos, Writ. George Pelecanos. The Wire. HBO. 2004-12-03. No. 12, season 4.