Amazon.com
After 30-odd novels, one might think that Elmore Leonard has nothingleft to prove. But Pagan Babies, a novel filled with his signatures (tight plotting, scathing wit, and that grittily realistic dialogue), shows once again why he sets the standard against which other crime novels are measured. In fact, Leonard has raised the bar. How many authors would dare use the Rwandan genocide as backdrop for a story that moves gaily between romantic comedy and a massive, labyrinthine con? More to the point, how many of them would pull it off?

Father Terry Dunn doesn't have qualms about substituting punishment for penance. If that means killing four Hutu murderers who slaughtered his Tutsi congregation, so be it. Being an instrument of divine wrath has certain disadvantages, however, so Dunn breaks camp and heads for Detroit, where he's welcomed by family, a five-year-old federal indictment for tax fraud, and a fast-talking fireball named Debbie Dewey. Fresh from a stint in prison for assaulting her former fiancé, Randy, with a Ford Escort, Debbie is out for revenge:

"I still can't believe I fell for it. He tells me he's retired from Merrill Lynch, one of their top traders, and I believed him. Did I check? No, not till it was too late. But you know what did me in, besides the hair and the tan? Greed. He said if I had a savings account that wasn't doing much and would like to put it to work... He shows me his phony portfolio, stock worth millions, and like a dummy I said, 'Well, I've got fifty grand not doing too much.' I signed it over and that's the last I saw of my money."

Customer Reviews (65)

Honestly!!
The book was mediocre at best.You think it would be hard to turn such dramatic events into such boredom, but apparently it is possible.Their is no suspense, I wonder what is going to happen next, at all.Read it if you have nothing else to read, that is why I read it.

Good, not outstanding.
This is my first Elmore Leonard book.I picked it up for fifty cents at our local library's book sale after deciding, at that price, I should read at least one of the renowned storyteller's books.

Leonard keeps the action at a fairly taut pace, though this book never had me racing through the pages.Famed for his dialogue, the dialogue is mostly witty and real, though I think his attempt to create standup comedy for one of his characters fell a bit flat, at least with me.The story certainly teeters on the edge of implausibility at points, but manages, for the most part, to keep its grasp.

The plot becomes thicker and more complex until the last few fifty or so pages, when things unwind fairly quickly (and predictably).The characters we meet along the way are pretty original and serve the story well.The most interesting character is Mutt, a misfit employed by Detroit's mafia who manages to be stupidly cunning and is used very entertainingly by Leonard.Besides Mutt, the most engaging aspect of the book is the romantic tension between Debbie and Fr. Terry Dunn.Leonard handles the relationship lightheartedly and well.

The tie-in to Rwanda is laudable in that it undoubtedly increased awareness of their horrible recent history at the time Leonard published this book and is, particularly in light of the current situation in Kenya, worth remembering.However, Rwanda is primarily a backdrop in which Terry makes brief appearances.The story is a Detroit mafia story.

If you enjoy quick reads with good dialogue, but not much "literary" heft, I think you'll get your fifty cents worth.If you prefer the latest winner of the Booker to the latest John Grisham, then I can only offer Pagan Babies, with caveats, as a change of pace.

Remarkably boring
The description sounds cool, right? Con man, Africa, the Detroit mob - all mixed up into a "witty, fast-paced" book? Not so. Pages and pages of repetitive dialogue, boring details, and conversations that add nothing to the storyline. I found myself skipping ahead several times to get past the fluff. Even the meat of the story is rather second-rate. You keep hoping that it'll get exciting, pick up the pace a bit, but are disappointed. Anyone accustomed to good work by Frederick Forsyth, Ludlum, Michael Connelly, David Baldacci or John Grisham will be sorely disappointed. Please look elsewhere.

47 Bodies in a Rwandan Church
In 'Pagan Babies' Elmore Leonard takes the reader from post-genocideRwanda to mobbed up Detroit and back again. Leonard's writing here meets or exceeds his usual high standards for gritty and sardonic wit and intricate plot and then there are the characters who people his plot. Almost without exception, every character in the book is playing an angle of one kind or another - if not several angles.

Rich characters - there's 'Father' Terry Dunn returned from Africa to 'raise money for orphans' (the pagan babies), and ex-con with a schtick and a scam named Debbie Dewey, plus several Detroit Italian mobsters, a Hoosier hick hitman, not to mention several very bad banana-beer swilling men in Rwanda and 47 unburied bodies in Father Terry's Rwaandan church.

Steve Buscemi (Sopranos, Fargo) excels on the audio version.

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy Elmore Leonard, crime/mystery or just a good story.

One of Leonard's best!
With Elmore Leonard, I think you are either a fan and you eagerly read everything he writes or he just isn't your cup of tea.I am a fan and I loved this book.In fact, I think it is one of his best.He uses the genocide in Rwanda as a backdrop for his story of a priest with a secret.As is common with Leonard's books, you can't be sure who is good and who is bad.For some people, this may be disorienting, but I think it is what makes Elmore Leonard the best crime novelist out there.I love a book that keeps you unsure whether you really know or understand what is going on.Definitely recommmended. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Donald Zinkoff is one of the greatest kids you could ever hope to meet.He laughs easily, he likes people, he loves school, he tries to rescue lostgirls in blizzards, he talks to old ladies. The only problem is, he's a loser.Until fourth grade, Zinkoff's uncontrollable giggling in class, sloppyhandwriting, horrible flute playing, bad grades, clumsiness, and ineptitude atsports go largely unnoticed. When he blows a race for his team, however, histransition to loserdom is complete: "[Loser] is the word. It is Zinkoff's newname. It is not in the roll book." Fortunately, he doesn't really notice. As hedid in Stargirl, NewberyMedal-winning author Jerry Spinelli again explores the cruelty of a student bodyand how it does and doesn't affect one student, pure of spirit. Presumably ifLoser makes one child view a "different kid" as a three-dimensionalcharacter, Spinelli will consider his book successful.

The author recounts Zinkoff's story--a case study of sorts--in short sentencesfrom a deliberately reportorial point of view, documenting the first years ofthe boy's life and his evolution into a loser. What makes the book charming andbuoyant is that the reader, like Zinkoff's parents and his favorite teacher,appreciates the boy's oblivious joie de vivre and his divine quirks. What isless compelling about the novel is the "let this be a lesson to us"heavy-handedness that accompanies the reportorial approach. Still, Spinellicomes through again with a lively, often moving story with humor and heart tospare. (Ages 8 to 12) --Karin SnelsonBook Description

There are winners everywhere... The sidewalks. The backyards. The alleyways. The playgrounds. Except for Zinkoff. Zinkoff never wins. But Zinkoff doesn't notice. Neither do the other pups. Not yet.

Zinkoff is like all kids -- running, playing, riding his bike. Hoping for snow days, wanting to be his dad when he grows up.

Zinkoff is not like the other kids-raising his hand with all the wrong answers, tripping over his own feet, falling down with laughter over a word like Jabip. The kids have their own word to describe him, but Zinkoff is too busy to hear it.

Once again, Newbery Medal-winning author Jerry Spinelli uses great wit and humor to create the unique story of Zinkoff as he travels from first through sixth grades. Loser is a touching book about the human spirit, the importance of failure, and how any name can someday be replaced with hero.

Customer Reviews (189)

KCS- class loser.
Have you ever felt as if you were the loser of your class?Everyone in his class thinks of Donald Zinkoff is the loser of there class, but Donald is oblivious to the names he is called.Donald Zinkoff is clumsy,awkward,asks too many questions,laughs too much,and not quite the same as the others in his class.The story takes place in a town from when Donald is in first grade until he is in fifth grade

Its the first day of first grade and Donald loves it. He loves school in general. Everyday is an adventure and he hates being bored. In fourth grade Donald is in the same team as the most athletic kid in class for field day. Their team is in first until Donald messes up and there team loses.By then, everyone seems to notice that he is not like others in the class. People begin to whisper about him and call him names behind his back, but Zinkoff doesn't seem to notice. Donald has never had a best friend, but he is content with himself.

I think that the theme of the book is that everyone deserves a second chance and that you should accept everyone even if they are a little different. Jerry Spinelli writes in a way that really describes how the main characters are feeling. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5. The book was good, but there was no climax in the book, and some might find it a little boring. The pacing is slow to medium throughout the book.I would recommend this book to middle school students and those who like realistic fiction and don't mind slow paced books.

Cornwall Middle School
I liked this book called Loser. It was about this kid that never really fit in, and threw out his life from when he was a baby to 6th grade. The characters seemed a little more realistic then the other books i have read. I liked the plot, but i thought they could of done a better job with were it took place and a couple other things. I thought there were some parts that I couldnt wait to find out what happened next. I would recomended this book to anyone that likes funny, good books. I enjoyed reading this book and there were alot of funny parts to it. This is deffinatly a book that they could have a sequeal, like when he starts 7th grade and gets a girlfriend of something.


AS

a must read for anyone who is, was, or will be a child
Jerry Spinelli is probably the greatest young adult novelist (yes, novelist) for a very good reason. Not only are his books incredibly human and powerful, capturing those illusive essential truths of childhood and adolescence, but they are written in an incredible (yet accessible) modernist, lyrical, and, well--beautiful--prose that captures all the emotions, wonders, and confusions of childhood. His stories seem familiar, and yet they never fall into the trappings of predictability or neatly convenient packaging. In all of these ways, he writes novels that really are good for children of every age (from 0 to 118). In Loser, Zinkoff is one of those off-center kids (another Spinelli gem), messy and silly, a klutz and a joke, gets everything wrong and loses every race. And yet, he is an incredibly happy, innocent, and deeply loving creature. The book is really a character study of this kid, how the world views him, how he views the world. As such, it is incredibly beautiful and poetic, dreamy and childlike. It's an incredible novel, for any age. Grade: A-

Loser Left Much To Be Desired
Loser by Jerry Spinelli could have been an interesting and overall good book but, in my opinion it was not because it was rushed and undeveloped.The book chronicles the life of Donald Zinkoff from his first day of kindergarten to his last day of eighth grade in a mere two hundred pages.Thus no grade is well developed and neither is any character but the loveable loser and main character Donald Zinkoff.This book was attempting to give a good message about the life through school of a loser.Because it is hard to go through your time in school with out true friends or any real interests to speak of let alone to be unatheletic on top of it.But although the message was no doubt an outstanding one, it left much to be desired as a whole.

This Book is NOT Very Good
It's about a boy who started out in kindergarten. He found out that he would be in school a long time. He had a problem and through-up every were any given moment.

The only thing i liked about this book is that it had a somewhat ok plot. And it it's about a boy and his life.

The main thing i didn't like this book because it was pretty dull and boring. I fell asleep most of the time i started to read it. If you realy realy realy like books that you might think it's ok. It just was not like somthing in real life... but it was not a good fictional story also.

This book was not very interesting. It was pretty much like if you HAVE to read a book for i'd say ok. But if you wanna read it for fun... i wouldn't if i was you.

... Read more

Amazon.com
Pop quiz. Please complete the following sentence: "There are days when I get up in the morning and stagger into the bathroom and begin running water and then I look up and I don't even recognize my own _." If you answered face, then your name is obviously not Jonathan Lethem. Instead of taking the easy out, the genre-busting novelist concludes this by-the-numbers string of words with toothbrush in the mirror.

This brilliant sentence and a lot of other really excellent ones compose Lethem's engaging fifth novel, Motherless Brooklyn. Lionel Essrog, a detective suffering from Tourette's syndrome, spins the narrative as he tracks down the killer of his boss, Frank Minna. Minna enlisted Lionel and his friends when they were teenagers living at Saint Vincent's Home for Boys, ostensibly to perform odd jobs (we're talking very odd) and over the years trained them to become a team of investigators. The Minna men face their most daunting case when they find their mentor in a Dumpster bleeding from stab wounds delivered by an assailant whose identity he refuses to reveal--even while he's dying on the way to the hospital.

Detectives? Brooklyn? Is this the same Lethem who danced the postapocalypso inAmnesia Moon? Incredibly, yes, and rarely has such a departure been pulled off with this much aplomb. As in the "toothbrush" passage above, Lethem sets himself up with the imposing task of making tired conventions new. Brooklyn accents? Fuggetaboutit. Lethem's dialogue is as light on its feet as a prize fighter. Lionel's Tourette's could have been an easy joke, but Lethem probes so convincingly into the disorder that you feel simultaneously rattled, sympathetic, and irritated by the guy. Sure, the story is a mystery, but Motherless Brooklyn could be about flower arranging, for all we care. What counts is Lionel's tic-ridden take on a world full of surprises, propelling this fiction forward at edgy, breakneck speed. --Ryan BoudinotBook Description

From America's most inventive novelist, Jonathan Lethem, comes this compelling and compulsive riff on the classic detective novel.

Lionel Essrog is Brooklyn's very own Human Freakshow, an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable. When Frank is fatally stabbed, Lionel's world is suddenly turned upside-down, and this outcast who has trouble even conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case, while trying to keep the words straight in his head. A compulsively involving a and totally captivating homage to the classic detective tale.

Customer Reviews (198)

A gift from a friend on Court Street in Brooklyn
An old friend of mine gave me this book as a gift.He is my only real connection with Brooklyn.I visited him there several times when he lived on Court Street and we walked its length while he told me stories about his experiences in the neighborhood and the minor wiseguys who sat at the table outside the Italian grocery across the street from his apartment.

Motherless Brooklyn was a gift he chose presumably because of this brief, shared Court Street experience.Much of Motherless Brooklyn takes place on our around Court Street and its place names like Cobble Hill and Carroll Garden are familiar to me.It was a sweet gift.

I've just finished reading it and I really enjoyed it.It was difficult to put down.

It is an endearing story of New York - endearing in spite of its themes of homicide and betrayal.The narrator - an orphan, a borderline gangster/hood with a serious case of Tourette's Syndrome endears himself to the reader.

I loved a scene later in the book that took place in Coastal Maine.It was written by someone who clearly understands and loves the region.

Memorable, Also Wearying
When I heard of an upcoming movie with Edward Norton (one of my favorite actors), and discovered it would be based on a Jonathan Lethem novel, I was compelled to read "Motherless Brooklyn" for myself. I'm new to Lethem's work, and so it was with great relish that I found myself swept into the rich and strange world of a man with Tourette's.

Lionel Essrog is a masterful creation, one of those fictional characters that can carry, even overwhelm, a story--as he does here. He's an orphan, a kid growing into a man on the streets of Brooklyn. Lethem opens his story with a stake-out and then the untimely--and by no means natural--passing of a fatherly figure in Essrog's life. From there, Lethem leads us through the rabbit warrens of Essrog's thinking processes, while Essrog tries to deduce the perpetrator of the crime. Essrog's character and his interactions with others, not to mention his own internal struggles, elevate this average mystery plot into something more.

Essrog is alternately funny, wise, and eccentric. At times, I found myself simply weary of being in his presence. This underlines Lethem's ability to capture the ticcing personality of his protagonist, but it also led to occasional distractions for me. Or maybe I was simply mirroring. Without Essrog's rants and rambles, the book would be cut in half, leaving a bare-bones mystery.

If you enjoy memorable and quirky characters in your novels, this book is one not to be missed. I can't wait to see Ed Norton's portrayal of Essrog, and I can only hope they capture Lethem's magic on the screen.

"You a car service or a comedy team?"
In "Motherless Brooklyn," Jonathan Lethem melds several genres, among them the bildungsroman, psychological novel, literary parody--all in the occasionally transparent framework of a detective story. The most famous aspect of the book is its hero's Tourette syndrome (the influence of Oliver Sacks's work is quite apparent), but the neurological condition itself takes on a life of its own, simultaneously moving and comic--and an opportunity for Lethem to indulge in some freakishly inventive wordplay that owes as much to James Joyce as to Mad magazine and the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.

The opening scene is on a par with the best of pulp fiction. Eating White Castle sliders daintily arrayed in a row of six (a compulsive aspect of his neurosis), Lionel Essrog stakes out an Upper East Side Zen studio with his associate Gilbert Coney, with the two of them standing guard as their boss Frank Minna is inside, wired for sound and exchanging cryptic arguments with some unknown heavy. It's at this point that everything goes wrong, and the ensuing chase scene through Queens and murder in Brooklyn provide one of the novel's highlights.

Lionel and Gilbert are just two of the four orphans hired (adopted, really) by Minna for a detective agency masquerading as a car service. (One of the recurrent gags is the group's supply of creative explanations to prospective customers for the lack of cars.) As a Minna Man, Lionel finds a father figure and a family where his Tourette's is not ignored but nevertheless accepted; Tony's pet name for him, "the free human freak show," serves more as a term of endearment than as a slur and indicates Minna's moderately disguised understanding that Lionel is the savviest of the bunch (Minna's estranged wife tells Lionel the reason Minna finds him useful is because everyone thought he was "stupid").

It's the interplay of the characters and Lionel's bumbling entry into adulthood that provide most of the novel's interest. As for the noir-inspired plot: there's hardly a cliche that Lethem doesn't send up--Italian mobsters and an evil corporation, the intrusively clueless police officer and a traitorous colleague, a sequence of red-herring clues and an offstage murder. ("Have you ever felt, in the course of reading a detective novel, a guilty thrill of having a character murdered before he can step onto the page and burden you with his actual existence? Detective stories have too many characters anyway.")

Yet the crime story itself never lives up the dizzying pursuit of the opening scene, and Lethem faces the difficulty of writing a parody of authors who themselves wrote masterful parodies (e.g., "The Thin Man," "The High Window"). Instead, the potboiler elements play shotgun both to Lethem's neurological-intellectual wordplay and to the emotional growth of his lead character. Lethem's novel has "too many characters anyway," and he resists the temptation to let the mystery gum up the works.

That's not necessarily a bad thing--unless you're expecting an old-fashioned whodunit or keystone caper. But Lethem's novel is less a whodunit than a howdunit--or, in this case, how the author does it: creating an affecting protagonist whose tongue twitches with the pulse of the cultural zeitgeist.

Loved Lionel...plot needs work.
Appreciated greatly the author's ability to put the reader in the mind of Lionel who had Tourette's Syndrome.Similarly his descriptions of the Brooklyn neighborhood came alive.I laughed and was saddened in several passages.This was easily a 5-rate.However, the plot was far-fetched as one waded toward the end of the book and not believable and this was disappointing and would lead me to not recommend this book.

Interesting
Lethem uses the English language in very unusual, and yet workable, ways. Hisunique take on the detective genre may yet inspire others. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on January 9, 1997. The length of the article is 1322 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Fargo: secuestro voluntario.(TT: Fargo)
Author: Tomás Pérez Turrent
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: January 9, 1997
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Issue: n2273Page: p66(1)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on January 11, 2002. The length of the article is 713 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: cine crítica.(TT: Movies.)(Reseña)
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 11, 2002
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 70

Article Type: Reseña

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Proceso, published by CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V. on June 21, 1998. The length of the article is 719 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Identidad peligrosa.(TT: The Big Lebowski)
Author: Javier Betancourt
Publication: Proceso (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 21, 1998
Publisher: CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V.
Issue: n1129Page: p65(1)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Proceso, published by CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V. on December 30, 2001. The length of the article is 814 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cine: Monsters, Inc contra Shrek.(TT: Cinema: Monsters, Inc. versus Shrek.)(Reseña)
Author: Javier Betancourt
Publication: Proceso (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 30, 2001
Publisher: CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V.
Page: 69

Article Type: Reseña

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Semana, published by Spanish Publications, Inc. on November 9, 2001. The length of the article is 669 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: La lucha de un padre por salvar al hijo.(TT: The struggle of a father to save his son.)(Reseña)
Publication: Semana (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 9, 2001
Publisher: Spanish Publications, Inc.
Volume: 7Issue: 454Page: 40

Article Type: Reseña

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Cineaste, published by Cineaste Publishers, Inc. on March 22, 1996. The length of the article is 1603 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Fargo. (movie reviews)
Author: Thomas Doherty
Publication: Cineaste (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 1996
Publisher: Cineaste Publishers, Inc.
Volume: v22Issue: n2Page: p47(2)

Article Type: Movie Review

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Product Description
A collection of artists, prostitutes, saints, and sinners are all aspiring towards fame and hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rents, faithless partners, and dead-end careers. ... Read more