By
Vanessa Francis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
'Jackie Brown' author tackles locales Detroit, Africa in new
Elmore Leonard likes to confuse his audience.
His previous novels "Get Shorty" and "Out of Sight" - both of which were made into major motion pictures - were characterized by twisting, overlapping story lines and colorful characters. The latest of his 37 novels, "Pagan Babies," is no exception.
The main character, Terry, is a not-so-saintly priest involved in a tax-fraud scandal for cigarette smuggling. Adding to the mix of characters is Fran, Terry's older brother and personal injury lawyer, and former go-go dancer, ex-con and aspiring comedian Debbie, who is imprisoned for hitting her ex-boyfriend Randy with a Ford Escort.
The supporting cast of characters is further evidence of Leonard's ability to create quirky and singular personalities, such as Terry's one-armed housekeeper and the "Miami Vice" wannabe and Escort-victim Randy. These characters demonstrate Leonard's close attention to detail when imbuing his cast with depth and humanity.
As with most of his previous works, Leonard sets several parts of the story in Miami and the motor-town, Detroit. This time around, he adds Rwanda into the mix of settings, giving the story a sense of African exoticism and allure.
Though his storylines can be confusing with their many twists and turns, Leonard is a master of dialogue. Some of the highlights of the book are Debbie's stand-up comedy shows, re-created in full - which she performs while incarcerated, poking-fun at issues such as prison fashion.
"This is the latest in prison couture. Can you imagine six-hundred women all wearing the same dress?" she asks a group of fellow inmates.
Debbie adds that her least favorite part of prison life is not the lack of freedom, but rather being forced to watch the 1990s ABC sitcom "Family Matters" every week.
The center of the story is not Debbie's penal stylings, but rather the genocidal killing of thousands of Tusti natives by Hutu murderers in Rwanda. In fact, Leonard opens the novel with a graphic description of the bodies, all of whose feet are amputated - for reasons never revealed.
The title of the book, furthermore, references these bodies, alluding to a fictional Web site where anyone can view the mutilated bodies.
Terry's role in Rwanda is to comfort the grieving families, but he does little of the sort. Rather, he violates his priestly vows by sleeping with the natives. And time and time again, in order to seduce various women, Terry assures everyone that he is not HIV positive.
"Pagan Babies," despite its fully-realized characters, still is lacking something. Perhaps a strong soundtrack added to a film adaptation of the novel - as was done with the adaptation of the Leonard-penned "Jackie Brown"- would assist in giving this novel a breath of life and a bit of depth beyond the surface level of Leonard's latest literary exploit.
