THE GETAWAY MAN by Andrew Vachss (2003).
When
Eddie met his first crew, he said
“I
am the getaway man.”
A
very simple and strangely addictive crime novel.
Like
watching very old black and white classic noir.
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layers. – Eddie. This book is 100% about him. Other than him,
there are only 5 characters that matter and all of them exist just to move the
story around Eddie.
Eddie is the story. Others are
just there to make his life interesting for us to read about. Well, maybe that’s
little too extreme, but I’m sure you get the idea.
Eddie is a getaway man. A getaway
man is a guy who drives the vehicle to get the crew out of the crime scene,
mostly banks and jewelers. Etc…
He is totally royal to his crew
and his driving skill is simply unparalleled.
He is simple but not stupid,
quite but observant.
Just a perfect man for a getaway
man.
He
doesn’t love cars. Driving is his love.
Tim and Virgil. Brothers. Tim is the brain and Virgil
is the muscle.
They are the first persons that
teach Eddie what it takes to become a getaway man.
They pay Eddie’s royalty back
handsomely at the end.
J.C. and Gus..
J.C. is a legendary
hijacker and Gus is an ex-military.
J.C. is a master strategist who
plans everything down to absolute details and checks them again and again until
he is 100% sure.
Gus is really powerful (muscular)
ex-military man who learned all about how to survive in the jungle during his
service and that of course helps him becomes the excellent criminal.
Vonda.
J.C.’s girl. Every
film noir need a seductive/foxy vixen who plans for ultimate betrayer and she
is the one in here.
She, very slowly but masterfully,
seduces Eddie.
Eddie, simple man he is, of
course falls for her charm/sex and ..well, you know..
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lace. – I am quite sure there is no mention of cities or
street names in this book.
The writer, by taking names and times away,
wants us to believe that this could be happening anywhere, anytime, I think.
Also, because Eddie’s crew works
all across the states and they never hit the same place again, it really isn’t
important where they stay or in which city they do their job.
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lot. – This is very straight forward film noir
crime story.
Here are the examples.
1. Bad guys do bad things.
2. Main man (Eddie, in this case) is
neither stupid nor unprofessional. But either simple or naïve or in the wrong
place in the wrong time. Or just purely unlucky.
3. There is always, that famous “ONE LAST JOB ” which always goes wrong no matter what for the sake of the story lie
(twist).
4. There are one or two beautiful
women who seduce the main guy for her own good.
This
book fulfills all above categories, but somehow the author mixes them up really nicely,
making them fresh and dangerous and unpredictable.
Does Eddie get away at the end
with money, hence become his own getaway man? or he simply just drive away with his 55' Thunderbird?
Does he finally have to kill someone?
Does he finally have to kill someone?
I think I must stop now. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who actually
might want to read about Eddie and his gangs. But let me just tell you this:
In
film noir,
Nobody get away free
or
Walk away safely with their
score.
NEVER!!
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erdict. –This is a very simple book.
The entire story is told from
Eddie’s point of view ( he is the narrator ), and because he is a very simple,
almost honest, man, this is inevitably a simple story.
In this book, there are no
chapters, just short or mid-range paragraphs and half of the paragraph is a
dialogue.
Therefore, if you decide to
really read it, you can probably finish this book in one night ( 5~7 hours,
maximum ).
Due to rapid pace
and cool dialogue, this book somehow sucks your
attention so completely, when I first pick up this book, I spent couple of
hours without realizing what I was doing.
In
other word,
Smooth
but addictive,
this is
this is
A Perfect Book For Killing Time!!
