Customer Reviews

Slicky Boys

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent sequel and follow-up to Jade Lady Burning, Mr. Limon's first novel, and I was thrilled to get to ride again with two of my favorite rogues, military investigators George Sueno and Ernie Bascom. I love these two characters and I love Mr. Limon's novels! This sequel has even more action than the original and is a fun and exciting romp through the seedy world that springs up around military bases in Asia, indeed military bases since time immemorial everywhere. Having been stationed in Asia in the Eighties myself as a Naval officer and having spent time in Korea, I can attest to the absolute and amazing authenticity of Mr. Limon's writing. I am in awe of how well he has captured and portrayed that unique world with it's complicated bubble economy of vice, innocence, predation, humor, money, face, need and desire. In this outing our protagonists Ernie and George are set up by a prostitute and the result is a murdered British soldier; Ernie and George have to work with the local Black Marketeers, the Slicky Boys, to unravel the crime.

For those of you who have served overseas, grab this book immediately, for you will absolutely love it. It lovingly and accurately paints with words a world that most us would have terrible trouble untangling, let alone articulating, in our own minds. For those of you who haven't been able to serve or travel overseas, this is an excellent book with, without a doubt, the best depictation of the Korean/American military economy ever written. It's simply an amazing portait and haunting in it's evocative power. Yet it's also a lot of fun, a little more light-hearted than Limon's other novels, and I would unreservedly recommend it to anyone. But please remember the book deals with an extremely foreign culture and our culture's attempt to interact successfully with it; there is as much Korean social mores and value here as American. This is deliberate, and is meant to broaden horizons and appreciation of an extremely complex setting.

I still find it mind-boggling that this author seems to have been so completely overlooked. I also, despite not often speaking about other's reviews, wonder why the publishing world's reviews are so tepid. I have had problems with the reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal; they do not do this writer justice and I am puzzled by this. The books are exceedingly well-crafted, the characters finely detailed, believable, and convincingly human, the atmosphere and setting as expertly drawn as any writer has accomplished. To put my concerns in context, I have read thousands of books and thousands of reviews, and I have never often though, "wow, that review is off the mark!"

I can't help but think that perhaps the subject matter is offensive to some and that colors their perception of Mr. Limon's accomplishments as a writer. The book does cover the military, the personal excesses found within any military organization, prostitution, black marketeers and many other politically incorrect and abhorrent issues. It also, beneath it's surface story, does so with a tenderness and understanding that I find remarkable and commendable. So I will take a rare public stand here and say I take exception to some of the Editorial Reviews. Their remarks are not off mark often, but they are in this case. This is an excellent book, an excellent writer, and I sincerely believe that you will completely enjoy yourself with this one.

This story truly took me by surprise. Most novels on Korea by Americans portray Koreans as cardboard characters with little insight into their lives. Slicky Boys breaks new ground on novels set in Korea. Limon obviously was a keen observer of the language, culture, and the tensions between the US Military and the host nation, cira 1974-1979, during his tours as a CID agent. He particularly excels at poking good natured fun at the Eighth Army's 40 year obsession with catching petty blackmarketers, which continues to this day. Slicky Boys is not only a joy to read, it also serves as a social history of a byegone era in Korean-American relations.

While a mediocre mystery, Slicky Boys is first-rate sociology. No other author, journalist or academic has captured with such authenticity and even-handedness the world of a US Army base town in South Korea in the 1970s, when 19 year-old GIs were the biggest spenders in the country. Limon catalogs the prejudices, virtues and vices of both Americans and Koreans. More importantly, he carefully observes how their mutually-exploitative alliance plays itself out on a personal level.

The unique adventures of U.S. Army CID (Criminal Investigation Division) cops George Sueno and Ernie Bascom first appeared in Limon's striking debut, Jade Lady Burning. Set in mid-'70s Korea, the series draws upon Limon's own in-country CID experiences to paint a vivid picture of a large American army and its often seedy interaction with locals. The story kicks off with the murder of a British soldier which partially implicates Sueno and Bascom, and thus forces them to investigate, even though they'd rather be drinking and whoring.

Their poking around leads them into the tangled world of organized black marketeering and the Korean "slicky boy" gangs who rule that world. Limon does a nice job of skewering the Army's obsession with halting petty black marketeering while turning a blind eye to much larger scams. Sueno's literal decent unto the slicky boy underworld is perhaps a little too pulp fictiony and melodramatic, but it's interesting, especially the historical ties back to the Japanese occupation. And just as in Fritz Lang's classic film "M", here the underworld and cops join forces to track down a vicious killer. A few bodies later it becomes apparent that there's a deadly deserter running around South Korea gathering secrets to sell to the Communists.

At the peril of their careers and lives, Sueno and Bascom put it all on the line to get their man. Their manhunt strains credulity at times, although Limon is careful to build it up as a "this time it's personal" kind of situation for them. Sueno is a good leading character, an East LA orphan who has managed to pick up the local lingo and customs fairly easily. He's perhaps a little too culturally savvy, but that's balanced out by his hair-trigger white partner Ernie, a Vietnam vet who is liable to get bored if there isn't a fight or girl to look forward to in the near future. On the whole, the story is perhaps a little too "thrilleresque" for my taste, but it's well worth reading for the glimpse into an unknown world where teenage soldiers are comparatively rich, and everything has its price.

In 1975, U.S. Army criminal investigation division agents Corporal George Sueno and Sergeant Ernie Bascom enjoy their duty assignment in Seoul, South Korean as they officially can make the rounds of the bars and whore joints catering to the Yanks. While doing their usual tour, a hooker Eun-hi informs "Geogie" that a virtuous woman wants to talk with him; if interested he is to go to the Kayagum Teahouse. Ernie persuades George to see what the woman wants. Miss Ku pays the duo to deliver a note to British soldier Cecil Whitcomb. Not long afterward, they learn that someone murdered Cecil at the rendezvous point provided in the note they personally hand carried to him.

Miffed for being played the suckers, East LA George and Detroit Ernie bully their way into the investigation because they have a score to settle. They quickly realize they need special local help, but not from the MPs or the Korean police. Instead they make contact with the underworld mob chief The Herbalist So head of the SLICKY BOYS. Working in tandem they begin to find more than they expected as an American military deserter apparently is killing anyone who interferes with his lucrative selling of military secrets to the Communist North.

This is an exhilarating Cold War military crime thriller that grips readers from the moment the dynamic twosome meet Eun-hi and see some easy money. The story line never lets up as the embarrassed George and humiliated Ernie make it their business to avenge the affront of being used. They make the tale as they provide readers with a fabulous joy ride through the underbelly of 1970s Seoul, catering to the young Americans.

Harriet Klausner

Having spent 4 tours in Korea, including one during the exact time Slicky Boys is to have occurred, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although he portrays CID agents in a much kinder light than I seem to remember them, the characters and the English-Korean interaction are extremely accurate. Can't wait for the next one. I felt like I was "back home".

If "Jade Lady Burning" was a film noir, then this one is the made for TV movie. While Limon's first novel was really quite cerebral and the action required only minimal suspension of disbelief, this one involves too many "perils of Pauline" scenes which detract from the plot's plausibility. Nevertheless, it is a good read.

This is the second book by Limon that I read. The first, unfortunately, was "Buddha's Money", which follows this and I thought was unpleasant enough that I almost gave up on the series. Fortunately I persisted and read this next, and I was really pleased. This is a much better book than "Buddha's Money." It is more plausible, better plotted, less gruesome, and with just as much if not more local color. The picture it paints of GI life in South Korea in the seventies may be shocking and to some offensive -- prostitution, hard drinking, thievery, and even corruption are routine -- but my sense from talking to friends in the military who served abroad, including Korea, is that whether we like it or not, it's probably a reasonably authentic portrayal.

The author has a real gift for depicting the daily life of the GIs, and the Koreans who happen to be in their orbit. The author nevertheless manages to present the characters sensitively and sympathetically, even when they are prostitutes, black marketeers and thieves. I think this is a real achievement. I think a lazier or less skilled would author would have given into the temptation to present such characters as over-the-top caricatures.

The plotting stays within the bounds of reason. Whereas certain aspects of the plot in "Buddha's Money" were simply outlandish, and not credible, the plot here does manage to remain plausible, even when it becomes quite complex. There are a few places here and there that are a bit of a stretch, but outlandish, at least not by the standards of the mystery genre.

One of the more original books that I have read lately, it is nice to have characters that are not sugar-coated. Recommend

Interesting characters. New geographical setting. Interesting plot. I couldn't put it down.