All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire

by Jonathan Abrams

Over time, the name of the novelist George Pelecanos kept popping up in conversations David Simon was having. Kary Antholis, the HBO executive, originally recommended that Simon read Pelecanos’s book The Sweet Forever. Simon took the suggestion as needling. He owed Antholis late scripts for The Corner and interpreted the earnest recommendation as a prod to him to hurry. Simon and Pelecanos finally talked at the funeral of a mutual friend. The pair, standing next to each other, believed that the friends and family of the deceased bookstore owner would gently place the first layer of dirt on the grave in traditional Jewish burial fashion. Instead, a backhoe jumped to a start and began piling dirt onto the plot. “Is this traditional?” Pelecanos asked, turning to Simon without a trace of a grin on his face. “Is this traditional for you guys?” “He cracked me up,” Simon recalled. “He just slayed me. I was no good for the rest of the day. I was like, Man, not only is he a good writer, he’s funny. Dark and funny. I sought him out after that.”