Customer Reviews

Nobody Move

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Taut and spare, "Nobody Move" is a light year from the depth and complexity of "Tree of Smoke." Hats off to the versatility--one book like Joseph Conrad combined with Charles Dickens, the next out of the shoot like Elmore Leonard mashed up with Dashiell Hammett. On its own, "Nobody Move" is a pleasure if you like deciphering information from oblique dialogue and spare narrative. Your hand will not be held in terms of figuring out who's scamming whom. It's quirky and smart, maybe a bit of "Pulp Fiction" on paper.

"Nobody Move" is a thicket of f-bombs, tangled sheets, motels, bars, cigarettes, lipstick, pay phones, two Cadillacs, .357 Magnums, shotguns, duffel bags and pages and pages of that highly-polished, clipped dialogue that is ready for a screenplay and has precious little to do with the way people really talk. A direct answer is rare.

Recommended for fans of Denis Johnson and this particular hard-boiled genre. Not recommended for those looking for a meaty, rich story. The tension is minimal and the story is over in a minute.

Reads like a B-movie script. No depth or character development. Waste of time. Book is same as this review.

Denis Johnson's Nobody Move as an audio CD seemed to have everything going for it. The author had received a National Book Award for Tree of Smoke, and this was said to be a follow-up. The New Yorker had said, "So noir it's almost pitch-black..." It had been in part a serialization in Playboy, and this audio version had Will Patton doing the reading. I was familiar with Mr. Patton's style from a number of his narrations of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels. All in all, looking forward to listening to these CDs was a fine thing to anticipate.

But it didn't turn out that way.

There's a cast of very marginal characters who, in a slightly noir classic sense, have a penchant for theft and violence. There's Jimmy Luntz, a bottom feeder of a gambler whom loves Hawaiian shirts and barbershop-chorus singing. There's a corrupt judge and lawyer who have embezzled a couple of million dollars, and the lawyer's beautiful wife Anita, who has been framed for the larceny, and she's ready for revenge.

There are more characters, but the problem with all of them is that they really have no depth; the entire story seems flat, yet almost claustrophobic. There's sex, but it also seems flat and not as erotic or even as passionate as one might expect, considering the characters. Jimmy takes Anita to bed after a booze-filled night at a local bar; they hop in bed, fall for each other, copulate, and scheme together. It's as flat as that, and often had this listener to the point of sometimes almost dozing off.

It's tough when you're faced with protagonists in a story one that just can't relate to, or just simply do not care for. Combine this with personalities that make them anything but likable and it makes the story quite difficult to follow, as one can't bond with the characters. Nobody Move falls into this trap with Jimmy and Anita, and at some point, almost everyone in the story decides that violence is the solution to practically any problem, and it's often the first solution they try, with some fairly gruesome results.

Johnson's Nobody Move tries to be is a stretched-tight crime story about a group of low-life types and a few people other with them, but it just doesn't deliver. The paradox is that Will Patton's reading makes the audio version seem worth listening to. He does a good job of capturing moods and sounds with perfection. Each of his voices does seem perfect for the character, and his narration fits what there is to the novel quite well. But it's a fast-paced story that often reads like some movie script; it's almost nothing but dialogue and action, and even Will Patton's expertise as a narrator just doesn't breathe the three-dimensional life into this one the way that this reader/listener hoped that it would. The plot is rather humdrum, but it's told with such energy and style that it keeps the listener's interest for the most part.

However, the bottom line is that writers like John Grisham, James Lee Burke, Lisa Scottoline, Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard just seem to do it better. Read Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard and you'll probably see the difference. And when it comes to narration, just listen to what Will Patton does with James Lee Burke's Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel, to name one of many.

So the end result here is a mediocre 2-star tale coupled with a very good 4-star narration. That averages out to a 3-star product that left me wishing that it could have moved me.

Jimmy Luntz is sort of an antihero who seems to do everything wrong and have it turn out, well wrong. He sings in a barbershop quartet, is with his group in Bakersfield when he's confronted by a thug named Gambol who works for a bookie named Juarez. Seems like Jimmy has a gamboling problem, seems he has a problem paying on time too and Gambol is about to take Jimmy on that ride nobody wants to go on.

However, Jimmy gets lucky, shoots Gambol in the leg (which only made him mad), steals his Cadillac and heads for the hills, but before he gets there he meets hard drinking, Native American Anita who is an easy lay once she hits the hooch. This is good for mostly unlucky Jimmy, cuz no way would he ever get a babe like Anita in the sack otherwise.

Also, Anita is in big trouble. Seems her hubby stole two point three million dollars and framed Anita for the crime. She wants the money and what's more she wants to get even. She wants hubby and the crooked judge who sentenced her dead.

Meanwhile Gambol teams up with his boss's ex and is starting to fall for her, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still want Jimmy six feet under for shooting him and stealing his car. And there's a whole bunch more in this wacky novel. This is crime fiction at it's very best.

There is virtually nothing to recommend this book except it is mercifully short. There is no character development and the plot, as thin as it is, is far-fetched. Lots of blood and core and amateurs shooting pros fill the 196 pages.

One of the leading characters, Luntz, is a loser of a gambler who owes big money. He shoots Gambol, the enforcer, in the leg. Being an amateur, he does not finish him off, so of course, Gambol survives to chase him down. At the same time, the beautiful damsel, Anita, about to plead guilty to embezzling $2.3 million, links up with Luntz for no accountable reason. The prosecutor and the judge have the money she embezzled, so of course, everyone joins forces to get it back. What few plot twists and turns that do occur all happen in the last twenty to thirty pages. They are too late and too feeble to save the book.

There was potential at the outset, with Luntz a possible loveable loser of a schmuck gambler and Anita a clever conniver. But the potential is frittered away.

I was not sure while reading this whether the book was an attempt to do a noir modernization of Hammett or a spoof of the genre. Either way it did not work for me. I found it lacking in either attempt. I would skip this one and, next time, I will not pick a book by the award the author won for a prior novel.

In Denis Johnson's latest novel (and very different from TREE OF SMOKE) Jimmy Luntz sings in a competitive barbershop quartet. He also has the gamboling sickness. He likes to bet, even when he can't cover his loses. Enter an enforcer named Gambol who tracks Jimmy to Bakersfield where his quartet is performing.

Gambol drives a Caddy, loves his car and his job too, so he's understandably upset when Jimmy manages to shoot him in the leg and steal his car. Gambol wants his car back. He want's to eat Jimmy's balls too, literally.

Jimmy takes it on the lam and meets up with a lovely lush named Anita. She's been framed by her soon to be ex for embezzling a ton of cash. She wants to get even and she wants Jimmy's help. Jimmy wants Anita, wants the money and does not want to get caught by Gambol, who is hot on his trail.

This is a sexy, wisecracking piece of noir that kept me guessing right up till the end and even after the story was through, I've still got these great and greatly flawed characters running around in my head. I pictured a different ending, but now that I think about it, I love the one Denis Johnson gave us. Imagine Chandler on acid and you have NOBODY MOVE. Just great, this book is. I loved it.

Three stars, not fewer because it's short. If you loved the mumbling ending to "No Country for Old Men", you may appreciate this novel. Very heavily overhyped. Skip it, and read The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer instead.

There is something to be said of protagonists of a story that people either cannot relate to or simply do not care for. Anti-heroes are one thing, but when combined with personalities that make them anything but likable makes the story really difficult to follow as you cannot bond with the characters. Nobody Move!, a crime novel by Dennis Johnson, falls into this trap with two protagonists, Jimmy Luntz and Anita, two people on the run together as they met drunkenly at a local bar to which they fall for each other, copulate, and scheme together.

Jimmy is a gambler that is running from a bookie, whose enforcer he shot, and is a true scoundrel but without the Han Solo sexiness. In fact, he's a complete jerk, someone you wouldn't mind seeing disappear instead of being the main "hero" of the story. He isn't even likable. Even Bernie Laplante in the 1992 film Hero (portrayed by Dustin Hoffman) was likable in his antics and attitude; Luntz is just an (three letter expletive deleted). Anita is the only character that is remotely likable as she is the victim of blackmail by her former husband, a district attorney. However, her character quickly becomes unlikable as she also becomes the same three-letter expletive deleted word as Luntz when she engages in crime, sex, drinking, and goes on rants about how degrading it is to shop at JC Penny. Great, now she's a pompous, arrogant three-letter expletive deleted name.

To make matters worse, it seems as though the whole plot centers around booze, sex, and more f-bombs than a Lil' John music video. I am not, at all, a prude, but I think there's a point where such themes contaminate the theme and overall flow of the story by becoming more dominant than the plot itself.

The only redeeming factor in Nobody Move! is that Will Patton narrates. The guy was awesome in Copy Cat and The Postman (probably the only redeeming quality in that film) and does an excellent job in narrating Nobody Move!

All in all, I would recommend John Grisham novels if you want to be moved by mystery.

For a mystery or thriller to work, you have to have an interesting character in a jam, and you have to have lyrical writing, or at least writing that is full of significant detail and vivid imagery. It also helps to have story momentum and a sense of humor, plus something worthwhile at hazard. This novel has none of that. The plot is boring, the main character dull, and the writing pedestrian. My reaction on every page is, who cares? Not me. I lasted 16 pages. Too bad. I loved "Jesus' Son," Johnson's early book of short fiction.

everyone would do it. A so-so plot despite the author's pedigree. Losers abound here and the end is a disappointment. Maybe next time.