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74th out of 3,396 books
—
7,814 voters
Get Shorty (Chili Palmer #1)
Mob-connected loanshark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind--plus his "friends" have a bad habit of dying there. So when he chases a deadbeat client out to Hollywood, Chili figures he might like to stay. This town with its dreammakers, glitter, hucksters, and liars--plus gorgeous, partially clad would -be starlets everywhere you look--seems ideal for an enterprising cr...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
June 4th 2002
by HarperTorch
(first published 1990)
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I enjoyed watching the character Chili, but I was disappointed with unfinished events at the end.
The value of this book is watching a collection of characters and the shallowness of movie-making. It was different and good. But I can’t say I really liked it. Each time I put it down I had no desire to get back to it.
THE DRAW IS CHILI’S CHARACTER:
Chili is a wise guy loan shark. He doesn’t use a gun. His style of intimidation is quiet, making the victim imagine bad things will happen if he doesn’t p...more
The value of this book is watching a collection of characters and the shallowness of movie-making. It was different and good. But I can’t say I really liked it. Each time I put it down I had no desire to get back to it.
THE DRAW IS CHILI’S CHARACTER:
Chili is a wise guy loan shark. He doesn’t use a gun. His style of intimidation is quiet, making the victim imagine bad things will happen if he doesn’t p...more
I’ve been reading Elmore Leonard for years, but this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most.
Often I find I lose interest towards the end, or lose track of the action. Maybe I’ve been reading him too fast. He does leave a little bit of work for the reader, to put two and two together.
Some quotes from my notebook:
“I asked him one time what type of writing brought the most money and the agent says, ‘Ransom notes.’”
Ronnie said, “Let’s get the man a girl. Harry, you want one with big hooters or one that...more
Often I find I lose interest towards the end, or lose track of the action. Maybe I’ve been reading him too fast. He does leave a little bit of work for the reader, to put two and two together.
Some quotes from my notebook:
“I asked him one time what type of writing brought the most money and the agent says, ‘Ransom notes.’”
Ronnie said, “Let’s get the man a girl. Harry, you want one with big hooters or one that...more
Get Shorty is considered to be one of Elmore Leonard's great novels. Like all Leonard stories I have encountered it is a wonderful experience to read. The story is amusing. A man who runs a dry cleaning business owes money to a loan shark. He misses a plane, but his luggage doesn't. When the plane goes down the dry cleaner is believed dead. He and his wife keep quite to collect the insurance money and settle a lawsuit with the airline. Once they get the money the man leaves his wife with the cas...more
Jan 07, 2009
Stop
added it
Read the STOP SMILING interview with Get Shorty author Elmore Leonard:
Elmore Leonard’s voice arrives like curling smoke. It drifts down the phone line from Detroit and floats around me in Sydney for quite a while. “I was in Australia a few years ago,” Leonard says. Then his story begins to unwind — something about a book festival in Adelaide and landing in New Zealand first and “a journey around the coast” and what I think may have been confusion as to whether he and his then-wife were ever in A...more
Elmore Leonard’s voice arrives like curling smoke. It drifts down the phone line from Detroit and floats around me in Sydney for quite a while. “I was in Australia a few years ago,” Leonard says. Then his story begins to unwind — something about a book festival in Adelaide and landing in New Zealand first and “a journey around the coast” and what I think may have been confusion as to whether he and his then-wife were ever in A...more
I approached Elmore Leonard with caution, because I'm British and I tend to read a lot of classic books. Leonard's language is American, modern, stylised and for me a bit difficult to get into. But I loved 'Get Shorty', it made me laugh out loud. My son borrowed it after me and when he asked me what it was about, I said 'It's about a leather jacket'. That puzzled him a bit, but afterwards he said 'It is, isn't it, because that's what starts it all off!'.
Chilli Palmer is a great character - noth...more
Chilli Palmer is a great character - noth...more
This was my first Elmore Leonard novel, and a good choice I think. Though first published in 1990, this story has aged extremely well and was a lot of fun. Main character Chili Palmer is very likeable - despite mob ties and loansharking activities - but even more surprisingly, he's believable. And so are the other main players. There's no invincible, unimpeachable hero; there are 'mean motherf-ers' but not a trace of "pure evil" bad-guys; and the extras are good, bad, and ugly in equal portions....more
I am suspicious of writers as prolific as Mr. Leonard. There is a reason, after all, that To Kill a Mockingbird would remain Harper Lee's only novel: Excellent fiction can take as much or more work to produce than does excellent non-fiction.
This means only that I was even more thoroughly impressed upon opening this book than I would have been.
My first jolt: Here was a novel that featured a wiseguy without featuring any of the usual nonsense about the Cosa Nostra. Mr. Leonard makes it clear in th...more
This means only that I was even more thoroughly impressed upon opening this book than I would have been.
My first jolt: Here was a novel that featured a wiseguy without featuring any of the usual nonsense about the Cosa Nostra. Mr. Leonard makes it clear in th...more
My first Elmore Leonard novel, and all the hype & rep is 100% on the money: nimble dialogue-driven plot, zero exposition, groovy approach to prose that suggests grammar well-learned then tossed into the backseat, memorable and sympathetic characters on both sides of the crosshairs. Here, the plot involves a Florida shylock who is somewhat forced to make his mark in Hollywood, become some sort of producer or even inventor of plots involving his own escapades -- that last bit gets very meta, b...more
Following the exploits of shylock Chili Palmer as he tries to go as straight as a guy can go in Hollywood, Get Shorty is a really good read because it plays all of its parts so well. An accomplished crime writer, Leonard keeps the pace and overall feeling of the book snappy and up-beat whilst playing the mob parts as well as James Ellroy.
Chili is the archetypal anti-hero, a guy not scared to knock some heads and able to make people do what he wants as easy as shooting them one of his 'dead eyed'...more
Chili is the archetypal anti-hero, a guy not scared to knock some heads and able to make people do what he wants as easy as shooting them one of his 'dead eyed'...more
I saw the movie a million years ago but couldn't remember anything about it, thank god. Maybe I fell asleep, way back then, comparing it to Pulp Fiction or whatever. But as I was reading I was so glad I couldn't remember the movie. Would've spoiled the keen pleasure of reading this thing.
OK, I'm usually much more into the literary-artistic-dreamy cafè-Joyce's Araby-Nabokov ripoffs, which I will love forever amen, but every once in a while it's good to get an ass-kicking, somebody who comes right...more
OK, I'm usually much more into the literary-artistic-dreamy cafè-Joyce's Araby-Nabokov ripoffs, which I will love forever amen, but every once in a while it's good to get an ass-kicking, somebody who comes right...more
This and Out of Sight are the best of his I have read. He moves masterfully from Florida hoods to Hollywood bull and back. Leonard's writing in this novel is as good as I've seen it, like he was in a groove and nothing he did could go wrong. There are passages that are like silk or a fine wine. This may have been him at the peak of his powers because it is hard to imagine anyone writing a story like this any better. Obviously his days in Hollywood making/writing other films gave him the backgrou...more
I read Get Shorty after Be Cool... and I felt that Be Cool was a better book. All the ingredients of a great Leonard book are in Get Shorty - interesting characters, crisp dialogue, sharp wit. But it just didn't gel in the way you'd expect of Leonard's work. Oh, and I didn't like the plot resolution. (Funnily, there's a passage where Chili Palmer, the book's protagonist, is criticizing the ending of a fictional screenplay titled Mr. Lovejoy. His gripe is that the screenplay's ending is weak beca...more
Chili Palmer is a loan shark from Miami and comes to L.A. after one of his debtors tried to run out on him. The man has come into money and is in L.A.
Since Chili was going to L.A., the collections person at the casino in Las Vegas asks him to look into a Hollywood producer named Harry Zimm, who owes the casino money and his payment is overdue.
When Chili meets Harry and learns about the film industry and the money that can be made, he decides this is what he wants too. He even has an idea for a m...more
Since Chili was going to L.A., the collections person at the casino in Las Vegas asks him to look into a Hollywood producer named Harry Zimm, who owes the casino money and his payment is overdue.
When Chili meets Harry and learns about the film industry and the money that can be made, he decides this is what he wants too. He even has an idea for a m...more
Get Shorty was a light read and I guess enjoyable enough. It's got loads and loads of plot (perhaps a bit too much) but not enough character development. All the characters seemed a little thin for me and while it would no doubt appeal to people familiar with LA and the movie business (or those even fantasise about being in the movie business and watch the Oscars and Golden Globes each year fooling themselves into thinking they are in some ways part of this fake family and actors really are thei...more
I liked Chili Palmer, the ultimate Mr. Cool. The rich vein of humour which runs through this book is entertaining, especially some of Chilli's remarks when he finds himself in a hot spot. His cool way of handling tough characters he comes up against, like Bear, are also great. So, I enjoyed reading this novel, but I did feel it ended rather abruptly. As a literary ending, it scored well: abrupt, with the comment that writing (film) endings were difficult to write, but apart from that cleverness,...more
My Dad highly recommended Elmore Leanord and after a less-than-stellar previous recommendation from him, I was hesitant to try him out. This book was a lot of fun though! It was witty and had numerous surprises. The main character was very cool. He (view spoiler) and Elmore doesn't rub that fact in your face. He let's you judge the character based on his action rather than telling you what he's like. I felt like the author expected an intelligent reader and it ke...more
I read this not long after it first came out, and enjoyed it greatly. I did always like Leonard's snappy dialogue-driven stories, and this one has a particularly light touch. There was one scene near the end that just about had me rolling on the floor with laughter. A good part of the humor and cleverness of the story comes from the way that the characters get drawn into Hollywood thinking, even if at the start they didn't intend to; they get increasingly unsure whether they're playing a part, a...more
This is brilliant! Leonard unbelievably manages to keep the main story and the back story of making a movie of the main story going in parallel until they cross over, all the while making both of them gritty and cool. And, maybe best of all, the pitch-perfect dialogue of all of the characters.
The whole book is a movie pitch, that worked, just like one of the main scenes where Chili makes a pitch by getting a star actor to audition for and develop the make-a-movie story line, get this, without re...more
The whole book is a movie pitch, that worked, just like one of the main scenes where Chili makes a pitch by getting a star actor to audition for and develop the make-a-movie story line, get this, without re...more
Perhaps it is because so many of Elmore Leonard's novels have been adapted to movies that Leonard takes a lot of shortcuts with this novel. Get Shorty frequently resembles the screenplay it became, especially toward the close of the book when the author and his characters try to come up with a suitable ending. Nevertheless, it holds up really well after 20 years, retains its originality and freshness with memorable characters and dialogue. Readers could do far worse than accompany shylock Chili...more
Loved the movie since I first saw it, not long after it first came out. Haven't seen it in a while, though there's some noticeable changes. Most make sense, though I wonder about the addition of "it's the Cadillac of minivans" to the movie... there must have been a reason for it, and I quite liked it there, but there's nary a minivan in the novel and it's not plot-centric either way, so that curious.
I'd like to see Chili Palmer and Jackie Burke from "Rum Punch" meet up, though honestly I'm not...more
I'd like to see Chili Palmer and Jackie Burke from "Rum Punch" meet up, though honestly I'm not...more
Get Shorty is an awesome crime thriller written by Elmore Leonard, an accomplished author who has written over 35 novels. Chili Palmer is the main character of the book, a crazy loan shark who travels from Miami to LA in search of money that had been swindled out of an airline company. As Chili gets closer and closer to getting the $300,000 from a group that gambled all the money away in Vegas, he encounters a film producer, Harry Zimm. Chili is a huge movie fan, and he decides to pitch a film i...more
It's been years since I saw the film version of Get Shorty, so I came to this one more or less clean. And, as with Elmore Leonard's other books, this one doesn't disappoint. In some ways, it's review-proof. You have all the usual Leonard stuff: wiseguys and smart ladies, whip-smart dialogue, lapses of morality and struggles for redemption, cons, shylocks, dupes, and broads. It's all here, only this time it's set against the backdrop of the Hollywood studio system, which is easily as amoral as th...more
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I'm trying to clean up my list of "books/authors I haven't read, that cause people to stare at me in fascinated horror when they find I haven't read them!" Elmore Leonard is one. Of course I've seen the movie Get Shorty & after perusing a few lists, figured this would be the book to start with. Lots of fun - Hollywood & Miami setting, which made me feel warm, that was a plus! Wonderful dialogue, well-drawn characters, tight plot. I'm not a huge fan of crime fiction but I'm glad I read th...more
I read the book because I saw the movie and agree that Chili Palmer is probably the coolest character created.
Actually I would say that the script for the movie was better than the original book as it cut out a few characters and a few unnecessarily long winded narrative.
But as loan shark Chili Palmer goes west to track down a man who faked his death to collect on a debt, he gets ambitious about making a movie.
The plot intertwines the various motives that the colourful characters have, making...more
Actually I would say that the script for the movie was better than the original book as it cut out a few characters and a few unnecessarily long winded narrative.
But as loan shark Chili Palmer goes west to track down a man who faked his death to collect on a debt, he gets ambitious about making a movie.
The plot intertwines the various motives that the colourful characters have, making...more
Before Tarantino put slick dialogue on the mainstream cinema map Elmore Leonard was doing it years ago in print.
Chili Palmer may be just about the coolest character since Casablanca's Rick Blaine, and the twists and turns in the plot make it a page-turner.
But it's the cast of larger than life characters and cooler than cool cats that makes Elmore Leonard so memorable. Crazy escapades and twists and turns are just great fun.
The perfect holiday book, but with more going on beneath the surface than...more
Chili Palmer may be just about the coolest character since Casablanca's Rick Blaine, and the twists and turns in the plot make it a page-turner.
But it's the cast of larger than life characters and cooler than cool cats that makes Elmore Leonard so memorable. Crazy escapades and twists and turns are just great fun.
The perfect holiday book, but with more going on beneath the surface than...more
This book was great! I mean I would totally read it again and I’m actually looking forward to watching the film tonight or tomorrow. And the reason this is interesting is this book is for our Books into Movies book group and I’m usually wary of the books and haven’t really fell for one yet, but this one was just so humorous and deceptively convoluted that one can’t help but enjoy it.
This story is great because it weaves real life and hollywood movies together (in a book!) and many of the charact...more
This story is great because it weaves real life and hollywood movies together (in a book!) and many of the charact...more
Chili Palmer is a Miami loan shark who is considering a change of job when one of his “clients” goes missing. For more than the usual reason, Chili follows his trail to LA and promptly gets tangled up with a film producer past his prime & his horror-film starlet. Very soon he is bitten by the movie bug and realises that he has the best script of them all – his own life story. Add in a diverse cast of characters – the current top gun actor, a local trigger-happy drug dealer who wants to laund...more
One of my neighbors left this book in the laundry room so I picked it up. I had heard of the author and certainly heard of the movie with John Travolta, so I decided to read it. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy it. I don't know ... I didn't really care about the characters, I don't really care for L.A. I know Elmore Leonard has a slew of fans, but I just didn't find this entertaining. And, I'm astounded that they cast Danny DeVito as the movie star! OMG! What's up with that?
The story of Chilli Palmer, a small time loan shark from Miami. He goes to Las Vegas to chase after a non-paying customer. He ends up in LA, and gets himself into the movie business.The book is filled with egotistical actors, beautiful starlets, greedy producers and hoods of all shape and size. It makes the movie industry look like a real cesspool. The author by the way worked for many years in the movie business and so knows how it works.
Leonard brings the LA noir of Chandler and Hammett up to date (well, 1990) in a classy piece of fiction that retains the noir as well as the humour that's the trademark of the genre. The first joke (though it isn't obvious) is that the title refers to Miami hustler Chili's attempts to get a major - and deceptively diminuitive - Hollywood star to be in a movie he's dreamt up and pitched to a B-movie producer.
Unlike focused heroes like Spade and Marlowe, Chili is a chancer. He's loan shark who's...more
Unlike focused heroes like Spade and Marlowe, Chili is a chancer. He's loan shark who's...more
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Elmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into m...more
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“There were a lot of terms you had to learn, as opposed to the shylock business where all you had to know how to say was "Give me the fuckin money".”
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4 people liked it
“Ernesto Palmer got the name Chili originally because he was hot-tempered as a kid...Now he was Chili, Tommy Carlo said, because he had chilled down and didn't need the hot temper. All he had to do was turn his eyes dead when he looked at a slow pay, not say more than three words, and the guy would sell his wife's car to make the payment.”
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