Customer Reviews

The Hunted

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2 star:		(2)
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I was a little skeptical of an Elmore Leonard novel set in Israel. However, 'The Hunted' pleasantly surprised me.

Al Rosen is hiding out in Israel, living off the checks sent his way by the company he helped found. He spends his days hanging out in hotel lobbies, getting sun, and just simply staying out of sight. Before he knows it, he finds himself on the run after his picture appeared in the daily newspapers in the States--the result of having helped a dozen senior citizens escape a hotel fire.

Sgt. David Davis is about to finish his tour with the marines. The big problem is that he has no idea what to do with himself once he is out. On the side, he has helped deliver packages for Rosen, without really knowing who Rosen is. Before he knows it, his future plans are of no real concern as he attempts to help Rosen out of his mess.

I'll give Elmore credit, he took what I thought would be an uninteresting setting, and really turned it into something. There isn't a lot, but Leonard makes some interesting observations about Israel and Americans there. Most of it comes from the ignorance of some of the American characters as they interact with the Israelis.

The dialogue is classic Leonard. Some of the best conversations come between Rosen and Davis as Rosen attempts to give Davis advice on what to do when he finally gets out of the marines. Nearly every scene involving Mel Bandy, Rosen's sleazy lawyer (and he is sleazy), involve some comical dialogue. Rosen's assistant, Tali, has some decent remarks as she deals with Bandy and translates for others.

The only disappointment is the end. To some degree, it seems like Leonard just ran out of things to write about and came up with whatever plausible ending occurred to him. Still, its a good read and will be appreciated by Leonard fans.

Al Rosen stuck his neck out to help the government put some goons in prison, only it didn't go according to plan. Now Rosen is in hiding for his life. Life was still good until Rosen helped some old timers get out of a burning hotel, and wound up getting his face in the papers. Now he's on the run in Israel with three killers on his tail and a U.S. Marine for company. The Marine wants to help. Maybe he should ask Rosen what happens to do-gooders.

Elmore Leonard in 1977 was still years away from being embraced for marrying suspense stories with witty dialogue, quirky characters, and off-center humor, but he was well on his way toward perfecting that approach when he wrote "The Hunted." In some ways echoing Leonard's past as a writer of westerns, with Mexican standoffs by dry wadis, "The Hunted" isn't exactly scintillating by Leonard's later standards, but it more than holds its own.

You can almost see Quentin Tarantino adapting it for the screen, with Rosen's way of wooing 40-something women to bed and characters who digress about God while waiting for the guns to start blazing. The bad guys are not without their enjoyable qualities, and there's Mel Bandy, a fat lawyer of no discernable morals whose idea of wooing an attractive assistant involves walking around her in a towel and inviting her to bed with him by telling her she can close her eyes and pretend it's someone else.

Leonard throws some nice philosophy here, too, though it doesn't get in the way of the terse narrative:

"Don't let people scare you; because nine times out of ten they don't know any more than you do," Rosen explains to the Marine. "Or even less. They got there pushing and shoving, acting, conning...If they had to get by on basic intelligence - most of the people I've done business with - they'd be on the street selling Good Humors and probably ------- up the change."

"The Hunted" didn't amuse me like great comic Leonard novels such as "Maximum Bob" and "Freaky Deaky." It didn't thrill like "Rum Punch" or "Bandits." The plot is actually kind of threadbare, and a little nonsensical, when you think about Rosen's unresolved financial situation and how it's supposed to be resolved by a visit from the untrustworthy Bandy.

But "The Hunted" manages to keep you reading, and surprises you more than a little at the end. You'll enjoy the amiable company of both the good guys and bad guys while appreciating Leonard's mastery of his craft. He hadn't entirely moved out of the Western idiom even as he left the American West, but considering that he was the author of westerns like "Hombre," why should he have been in any rush?

I think I've figured out why Leonard is the lit crits' token crime-writer darling: They don't give a rat's behind about plot, and neither does he. Me, I like a little plot in my crime books.

What's interesting is that this book was originally published in '77, and back then, Leonard actually bothered to cook up some pretty good stories (especially in The Switch). So you can read The Hunted as a harbinger of modern Leonard. He starts with three or four good characters (the no-BS middle-aged hero; the black-guy-and-white-guy likeable hoodlum team; the attractive young woman who knows how to watch out for herself). He has them sit around in bars, cars and hotels staring at each other. Eventually, there's a showdown. No twists, no real surprises.

OK, fine. But as far as I can recall, every single Leonard book since the mid-1980s has gone the same way. I suspect Leonard starts with the showdown, then works backward to figure out how it developed. This guarantees lots of filler; you get the feeling Leonard gets a kick out of showing you his cast of characters, and another out of his climax, and doesn't much care about the stuff in between. Hence cars, bars, hotel rooms.

Just a perfect little Leonard novel. East to read, plot twists but not too many. Not a literary masterwork, but certainly worthwhile. Leonard makes no mistakes here.

OK, so if you read lots of Elmore Leonard, you'll know that this isn't perhaps his finest piece. It might not have as many plot twists and turns that some of his other tales have, but here's the catch, he's still the best. He draws characters more vividly and economically than anyone I've ever read. You never know what's coming next, even when you do know what's coming next. This is fun stuff to read.

This book was first published in the 70's (?) and is set in Israel with references, only, to Leonard's usual turf - the criminal world in the USA.

His hero, Rosen, who has done the dirty to a mobster hides out in israel where he believes he will not be found. A freak incident leads to his photograph outside a hotel in Israel being published in an American newspaper and his whereabouts being discovered.

In the ensuing story, which no Leonard fan will want to miss, Rosen is pursued and the story makes for exciting reading, BUT it is not vintage Leaonard mainly, I think, because it is not set in the USA. It lacks some of the usual black humour one finds throughout Leonard's ouevre and somehow, it is less moral than Leonard's books usually are.

But get it to complete your Leonard collection - he is still the best crime writer writing !

An early example. Not as refined as his later books but a good read never the less.

The Hunted is one of Elmore Leonard's lesser known novels. Written in the 1970s, this book is best described as a dark comedy with elements of both crime and action-adventure. Though not quite a top tier Elmore Leonard work, The Hunted is worthwhile reading nonetheless.
The title character or the person being hunted is Al Rosen, a shady businessman from Detroit who was coerced by the U.S. Justice Department to give grand jury testimony against some not so nice criminals. If he had stayed in Detroit, his life wouldn't have been worth a plug nickel. So he flees to, of all places, Israel where he manages to live under the radar. A retired American expat who resides in the best hotels Israel has to offer.
But one fateful night there's a hotel fire that draws the attention of the media and Rosen gets photographed. The wire services pick up the photograph and it subsequently appears in the Detroit Free Press. Now Rosen's enemies know where he is and they immediately descend on the Holy Land for the purpose of rubbing him out.
Surprisingly, Al Rosen is not the book's main protagonist. That particular honor falls to Sgt. David Davis, a Vietnam tested marine who takes a liking to Rosen and decides to prevent him from falling victim to those determined to murder him.
The Hunted has good dialogue, plentiful helpings of dark, ironic humor and some fast paced action. A worthwhile read worthy of a 4 star rating.

Elmore Leonard's THE HUNTED gives us an education in being the prey of some killers bent on destruction and revenge.

We learn a lot from protagonist Al Rosen's philosophy of life, his new philosophy of just accepting whatever happens. We learn to reject his naive philosophy as Detroit hit men track Rosy through the desert in Israel and pin him down in a house.

Lucky for Rosy, he's got a Marine on his side. And from him we learn the most. Come fully armed to any confrontation with killers. Concentrate on a plan of attack. Don't philosophize. Instead, pick your targets carefully and kill them immediately. Or else, you will lose any advantage.

Finally, Leonard's tale repeats a lesson found in many westerns. Women are useless in a crisis. They either break down in tears or they cop out immediately and leave us all alone.

Of course, Leonard admits they can offer some pleasure in our idle moments, but he urges it's best to rent them and not buy them.

Wonder what my wife would think of that lesson.

by Larry Rochelle, author of the thrillers BLUE ICE, GULF GHOST and DANCE WITH THE PONY

This is my first Elmore Leonard book, and I loved it, loved his characterization and dialogue. The book was intense, but at the same time didn't seem to take itself too seriously. And as a female reader who loves the late 20th/early 21st century romance genre, I have to say that Davis--the hunky marine--was quite the treat.