Customer Reviews

Run: Signed Edition

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Douglas Winter updates and deconstructs - nearly vivisects - the chiaroscuro of the classic noir style. The protagonist is gunrunner along Interstate 95. When a big shipment to a NYC gang goes haywire, an adrenaline surge propels the book - through the unraveling of scheme after scheme - to the necropolis of its cataclysmic conclusion. For good measure, a baroque quantity of minutia concerning firearms is peppered throughout. Suspenseful, stark, and startling, 'Run' includes the key hallmarks of the noir genre: taut, rapid-fire prose and an overarching existential nihilism. Like Highsmith's 'The Talented Mr. Ripley,' Goodis's 'Down There,' and Thompson's 'The Grifters,' Winter's neo-noir deserves to be put on screen, but get a copy of the book first - copies are disappearing faster than a pack of smokes at an AA meeting.

I could not better this excellent review by Kate Muir, as it distills the book to it's core

With gunrunners, drug dealers, and a political assassination, lawyer Douglas E. Winter's powerful first novel is no courtroom drama. Kate Muir finds out why :-

Shooting back Run by Douglas E. Winter Being trapped in an office with a pile of dry legal briefs tends to induce diversionary activity, which is why so many American lawyers have been forced to write popular novels on the side. Here comes another one: Douglas E. Winter and his speedy thriller, Run. The lawyer-turned-novelist, a late developer at 49, has a beard and a black turtleneck so we know he's not just another suit. And he has earned the right to jettison his tie: Run is a powerful all-nighter of a novel about a bunch of illegal arms dealers whose $2 million "milk run" between D.C. and New York becomes entangled in a political assassination and a bloodbath that Caligula would be proud of. Plots within plots open up like a set of Russian dolls, as the hero-of-sorts runs to save his life. Much of his book is unquotable in a family newspaper. Indeed, one American reviewer wrote that the book "reads like it was written from a prison cell" rather than a law office. It's an effect Winter sought out. "There is a commercial way of rendering dialogue in thrillers which is in fact not as spoken. So instead I listened to people talking here in the city." Dealing with white gunrunners who are forced to work alongside black drug dealers, Run pits gangsters v gangstas, and much of the dialogue also echoes the urban rhythms of hip-hop, pretty ambitious for a white guy from Granite City, Illinois. It is Winter's fine collection of rap music that let him pull it off. "Rap is often very angry, and I understand that, and Run is a very angry book. I wanted to borrow a little bit of that aesthetic, that feeling, that honesty. But I wonder now sometimes what people think when they read the book. There's a lot of very vicious, very nasty language right out of the gutter . . ." In some ways, though, the plot is appropriately thrilling. Run is a rant against guns: their power and the way Americans put them on a pedestal. The narrator, Burdon Lane, is a gunrunner whose cover is legitimate arms dealing and his description of various weapons borders on the lascivious. Winter, a former army officer in the reserves, understands this: "As a child growing up in America you could not help but be attracted to the romanticisation of the gunslinger that takes place: westerns, secret agents, etc. I wanted to embrace that element because the book is about the culture of guns and the whole romantic appeal of the weapon as the solution, as a signifier of power or cool." So although the book begins with the Second Amendment, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed", it actually goes out of its way to show what happens when a bullet hits a body. Thus there are victims with their legs shredded, heads messily blasted off on trains and, in a particularly stomach-churning moment, our hero sticks his finger through his armpit to check that a bullet has come out the other side. "I wanted to show what really happened, not that TV thing where people are shot and remain in one piece." Accordingly, Winter made his final scene what he thought was shocking. But as he finished it, fact surpassed fiction when 15 schoolchildren died at Columbine. One reviewer did complain that Run was a "hardboiled thriller with a liberal agenda", but Winter is unrepentant. "I'm not a great sociopolitical thinker but I wanted to offer some fresh thought on the issues around us." Winter began his writing career as a critic, then wrote non-fiction, horror and suspense in the late Eighties, while continuing his legal work. Then, in 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 225 crashed at Detroit airport, killing everyone except one four-year-old girl. It was the second worst air disaster on American soil and Winter was sent to defend McDonnell Douglas, the airline manufacturer, after Northwest denied liability. "It was an epic nightmare. I lived on the road for more than three years, and the jury trial went on for 19 months in Detroit. It was day in, day out emotional, psychological warfare. We won, but the appeals that followed went on for five years. Again we won but towards the end, I began to develop a very severe sleep disorder. Here was the pinnacle of any litigator's career, and personally I was devastated." He suffered from deep depression, "but in the law firm no one could understand this darkness I felt inside myself. But with a good doctor, a wonderful wife and . . ." he shrugs, almost embarrassed " . . . two great dogs, it got better. I decided that the only way out of it was to take the risk and spend time writing a novel which would in some strange way try to make sense of all this carnage and tragedy. That was Run."

(c) 2000 Kate Muir

Douglas E. Winter's RUN is indeed one of the best books so far this year. It took me 20 minutes to catch my breath after reading it. Winter's writing style takes on the speed of an action adventure movie--but faster. This book is the kind of action macho men dream about. Yet, more than that it is a superb story with masterful writing that anyone will appreciate. From page one, Winter pulls you into his story and never lets you go. His characters are fascinating, and though they seem superhuman, you can easily put yourself in their shoes. This novel, like so many great ones, is about the human condition--ugly as it may be. It is a cultural litmus test that digs into where we are as a society, and where we are going in the next millennium. Will our society of guns and violence and racism follow us into the 21st century, or will we see the light? You will laugh reading this book, and you may even cry, but most of all you'll feel exhilarated and you'll want to read it again. It's fun, it's fast, it tells a great story and has a wonderful meaning. So, chalk this one up on your grocery list of must-have books for your library.

Douglas E. Winter, Run (Onyx, 2000)

Douglas Winter, whose sole excursion into publishing previously was editing a number of excellent anthologies, heads to the front of the camera, as it were, with his first novel, Run. One wonders, idly, what took him so long-especially after reading this.

Burdon Lane is an arms dealer-mostly legal, with some grey-area stuff around the edges to supplement the income. All of it is well-known and well-sanctioned by his employer, UniArms, who do the same thing, just on a much bigger level. One day, the president of UniArms calls Burdon and his sidekick, Renny Two-Hand, into the office and asks them to accompany a shipment to Manhattan. It should be an easy job, but if it were, there wouldn't be a novel, would there?

Most reviews, and all the blurbs, focus on the book's fast pace and nonstop action. Which is true, for the last two hundred or so pages of this four-hundred-page novel. Once the deal goes sour, you'll finish this in one marathon session. Winter provides no place to take smoke breaks in here; the shooting starts, and it does not end. It's not every action-novel writer who can keep up that kind of a pace for two hundred pages.

What impressed me more about the novel, though, were the first two hundred pages, which involve a lot of waiting, a lot of background, and some nicely unobtrusive setup for the events to come. I can't count the number of action, mystery, horror, et al. novels where the setup portions drag like a three-toed sloth with a gimp leg. But even when Winter is setting up Burdon's character, introducing us to the minor players, and other such mundane tasks, the book is still brisk enough that the reader is reluctant to let go. This comes half from Burdon Lane's narrative style, which has the look and feel of an illiterate construction worker reciting the famous soliloquy from Hamlet, and half from an ability to flesh out minor characters with little details most writers would overlook. (The comparison here to one of Winter's longtime clients, Stephen King, is obvious. The man learned from the master of the quirky detail and the two-line character sketch. He learned very well. This is not to say that this sounds in any way like a Stephen King novel; Winter has a voice all his own, and it's a doozy.) Someone needs to make a movie of this book, if only to give Steve Buscemi the chance to play CK, one of the other guys accompanying the shipment.

I hate to use phrases like "adrenaline-fueled," but this book deserves them all. All-natural guarana-enhanced sport drinks have nothing on Doug Winter's writing style. ****

Although Burdon Lane's job is somewhat out of the mainstream--he's a gun runner, trafficking in illegal firearms--his anxieties mirror those of many of his middle aged contemporaries: even when things seem to be going well, he harbors fears of being derailed, of having the life he's so carefully built slip through his fingers. Thus, he initially questions his business partners when they ask him to join them on a supposed "milk run" to New York City. Despite his misgivings (the operation, involving two volatile street gangs, doesn't seem to require his presence), Lane agrees to participate, assured by his companions that nothing will go wrong.

But things do go wrong, and in spectacular fashion. As it turns out, the operation is a cover for the assassination of prominent civil rights leader Gideon Parks, gunned down during a political rally. Realizing that he is among those who have been left to take the fall for the crime, Lane runs for his life, vowing to get to the truth and punish those responsible. The remainder of the novel details his struggles to stay alive against formidable odds, as he uncovers the hidden subtext of his world, a place where nothing is as it seems, and alliances are broken and forged with alarming speed.

Winter's first novel is a bleak, yet strangely optimistic thriller, an accomplished performance that delves deep into the heart and mind of its main protagonist, a criminal whose brutal mores and ambitions mask his all too human vulnerabilities. Lane's first person narrative, blunt and terse, convincingly conveys the surprising depth and variety of his emotions: his matter-of-fact attitude toward his strange career, his love for his deceased mother, the passion he feels for his girlfriend, and the anger he feels at the duplicity he endures. It also creates a sense of immediacy, one that becomes more noticeable as the book hurtles towards its bloody but inevitable conclusion.

RUN seems to reflect the influence of several writers and filmmakers. Traces of Donald Westlake/Richard Stark, James Ellroy, Jim Carroll, William Goldman, Donald Goines, Quentin Tarantino and John Woo are evident, all filtered through Winter's unique sensibilities. As such, the book transcends those influences. Winter delivers an explosive tale of loyalty and betrayal, one which simultaneously honors and elevates the thriller genre. Powerful, compelling, and expertly crafted, Run is a singular accomplishment. We're talking serious crime fiction here folks, the kind that grabs you and doesn't let go. Ignore it at your own peril.

An interesting and stylish thriller about arms dealer Lane and a deal that goes very wrong.

Winter's strength here is his style -- original, fast-moving, and a successful use of first-person to show a character's unique voice. I don't normally like books featuring gangsters, but Winter manages to make them vivid without romanticism. Jinx, a major secondary character, is more appealing than he has any right to be. Here and there Winter slips into sentimental hyperbole, but for the most part the language is taut.

The speed of the plot here is breakneck but all the pieces seem to hang together as one layer of conspiracy after another is revealed. At their height events get more than a little improbable, but readers may well be caught up enough not to care. Obviously, there's a great deal of violence, but I only felt it was gratuitous in one place, the exploding of a helicopter with uninvolved "civilians" on board.

For a book that isn't my normal kind of read, I really felt this was well done and I recommend it to readers who enjoy hardcore thrillers.

Douglas E. Winter's first novel is immediately fascinating due to his free-flowing form of prose. The first few chapters of "Run" set up an interesting, not-so-unlikely, world of gun running. However, once the real action of Winter's book begins, the quality of the story itself ends.

Winter fails to truly nail down his main characters, aside from their stereotypical personalities. Instead, he propels his story through action-- the only problem being the reader looses interest in the action when they do not care about the outcome. Through several plot twists and turns (many outlandish), Winter wraps things up in a climatic battle of street thugs vs. corporate thugs, suitable for a mindless summer blockbuster.

In spite of all this, Winter's setup will keep you reading, hoping that he can bring to the surface something inventive-- instead of a run-and-gun thriller.

I applaud Winter's ambition to create his own style-- which he certainly has, now all he needs to find is some substance.

As contemporary crime novels go, Run is like a Glock 17 loaded with hollow points: sleek, deadly, and fully cocked to blow the target (i.e., you, dear reader) away. Winter, best known as an award-winning editor, short story writer, and biographer, aims, shoots, and scores.

This is a terrific first novel from a highly original voice. So why only four stars? Smart readers may, like myself, figure out a key plot twist early in the novel. Does it detract from the narrative? No, but it seemed just too damn obvious coming from a writer of Winter's talent. Furthermore, some of the African American characters in the book seemed too familiar, like they'd just stepped out of New Jack City or King of New York. But then what do I know? As Melvin Van Peebles once said to me, "boy, you're just a middle class white guy from England."

These are just observations, not criticisms per se.

If you are a fan of crime novelists like Michael Connelly, Andrew Vachss, or Elmore Leonard, you'll really enjoy Run. But be warned, don't start this book late at night becuse YOU WILL FINISH IT.

Absolutely sensational! The pace is breath-taking and the detail about the gunrunning business is fascinating (it reads like the detail Tom Clancy usually puts in his books). Several readers have commented on the lack of character development. I disagree--the central character, Burdon Lane, ultimately comes across as a very moral man in an immoral business. Some of the set pieces in the book will live in your memory after reading it (e.g., a tense escape from a Harlem building, a violence-filled wedding, etc.). I read a lot of thrillers and this is one of the best I can recall in the last few years.

Douglas E. Winter has written one of the most memorable thrillers in years. If you start Run, don't have anything important to do for the time it takes you to read it. You will be so absorbed in the protagonist's stream-of-consciousness narative that you will intstantly be transported into Burdon Lane's world of gun running, violence, and double-dealing.

What Winter has done is elevate the hardboiled novel to a whole higher level. Fellow writers and thriller fans should thank the author and his publisher for having the courage to break common editorial rules and bring us a story whose style and break-neck plot are absolutely compelling from the first page to the last. Like the protagonist, you will be looking over your shoulder, unable to determine friend from foe. Fans of Elmore Leonard, Andrew Vachss, and James Elroy will consume this novel like the feast of the mind and soul that it truly is., for while violence, death, and deceit are the elements that tumble out of control in Burdon Lane's life, it is ultimately the humanity of this self-admitted 'bad guy' that redeems him. You will remember Run for a long long time.

Bravo, Doug Winter. Can't wait for the next one!