On the HahaFiction shelf
Get Shorty
by Elmore Leonard
Chili Palmer · Book 1 · 1990
Chili Palmer goes west to collect on a loan and winds up talking pictures with Harry Zimm, a producer of cheap horror movies. Chili has spent years getting people to pay up. In Hollywood, that turns out to be useful experience for getting a movie made.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Collecting money for the Mob isn't too different from any other job, reckons Miami loan shark Chili Palmer.”Read the full description at Hachette Australia
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What makes it funny?
Chili’s feud with Ray Bones starts when Bones takes his leather jacket. The amount of violence two grown men can wring out of a missing coat sets the book’s deadpan pitch.
The comedy at work
Zimm needs help with movie investors who also deal drugs. Leonard puts Chili in a business where intimidating people over money counts as a skill you can take from one job to the next.
Try this if…
Go for this one if you like crime stories that follow the money into another line of work. Leonard makes room for pieces of an actual shooting script as Chili and Zimm work on the picture.
Good to know
Expect gun violence and strong language. The novel was the basis for the 1995 film.
A few distinguishing details
- A loan shark in the low-budget movie business
More funny comic noir
Sources & further reading
- Elmore Leonard official book page and excerpt
Author commentary
- Hachette paperback and ebook
Publisher
- Time review
Review
- Kirkus review
Review
- Open Library Delacorte edition
Library catalog
- Fresh Air interview with Elmore Leonard
Author commentary
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