Swag [Mass Market Paperback]

Elmore Leonard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1978

There aren't any textbooks on armed robbery. The only way to learn is through experience, and small-time crooks Frank and Stick are determined to do as much learning on the job as possible. In 1970s' Detroit they embark on a crime spree, holding up liquor stores and supermarkets. They invent their 'Ten Golden Rules for Successful Armed Robbery' and for a short time the cash is rolling in. But then they bend their own rules, and it looks like trouble is heading their way...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

You will look long and hard before you find anyone with a bad word to say about Leonard. About the worst thing I can think of to say about SWAG is that it might be said to make armed robbery look like a enticing career move... if you haven't read him before, you are in for a treat. -- Nicholas Lezard The Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Elmore Leonard has written more than forty books during his highly successful writing career. Many of his novels have been made into movies, including GET SHORTY, OUT OF SIGHT and BE COOL. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Dell (June 1, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044018424X
• ISBN-13: 978-0440184249
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elmore Leonard has written more than forty novels, including bestsellers Up in Honey's Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Pagan Babies, and Glitz. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early and excellent Elmore Leonard, September 30, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Swag (Mass Market Paperback)

In 1992 the Mystery Writers of America made Elmore Leonard a Grand Master; the award "is presented only to individuals who, by a lifetime of achievement, have proved themselves preeminent in the craft of the mystery and dedicated to the advancement of the genre." Perhaps none of his novels better exemplifies why he won this honor than Ryan's Rules (which was later renamed Swag).

Frank Ryan is a mildly honest used car salesman, but he thinks he's come up with a surefire way to get rich quick. So when Ernest Stickley, Jr. tries brazening his way out of the lot after Ryan catches him boosting a car, Frank decides to play dumb at the trial and Stick skips. Ryan explains his plan:

Stick...I'm talking about simple everyday armed robbery. Supermarkets, bars, liquor stores, gas stations, that kind of place. Statistics show--man, I'm not just saying it, the statistics show--armed robbery pays the most for the least amount of risk. Now, you ready for this? I see how two guys who know what they're doing and're businesslike about it,; who're frank with each other and earnest about their work, can pull down three to five grand a week.

And Frank doesn't just have a plan, he also has 10 rules for success and happiness, Ryan's Rules:

1. Always be polite on the job. Say please and thank you. 2. Never say more than necessary. 3. Never call your partner by name--unless you use a made-up name. 4. Dress Well. never look suspicious or like a bum. 5. Never use your own car. (Details to come.) 6. Never count the take in the car. 7. Never flash money in a bar or with women. 8. Never go back to an old bar or hangout once you have moved up. 9. Never tell anyone your business. Never tell a junkie even your name. 10. Never associate with people known to be in crime.

For a while, the two are able to follow the plan and the rules and they are extremely successful. In one of the best bits in the book, they go into a bar and when someone else robs it, they rob the robber. But, inevitably, the rules start falling by the wayside and when they see a chance for a big score, the rules go out the window, with predictably disastrous results.

Elmore Leonard novels can be like popcorn, you start consuming them by the handful, and there is a tendency to experience deja vu if you read too many too close together. I also think he became too dialogue dependent in his middle years, after receiving near universal acknowledgment as the best writer of dialogue in the business. But, perhaps because it was written relatively early in his career, Swag stands out as a great crime novel. Leonard obviously liked it too; he brought Stick back in an eponymous novel, that's also pretty good.

GRADE: A

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elmore Leonard's Masterpiece, IMHO, January 3, 2002

By 

suetonius "seutonius" (Phoenix) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Swag (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this many years ago in the Dutch Treat omnibus edition and re-read it recently. It tells the story of two small time Detroit criminals, Ernest Stickley and Frank Ryan, who embark on a spree of armed robberies. They make a partnership in which they agree to follow "Ryan's Rules" (which has been an alternate title for this novel). They soon break these rules and come to have several misadventures involving botched armed robberies (their own and others they are victims of) double-crosses and department store holdups gone wrong. The action follows non-stop much like a violent video game. There is Leonard's characteristic wry humour: An incompetent stick-up man is relieved of the proceeds of his robbery. He's locked in a storage room with his victims, who proceed to beat him unconscious. Stick and Frank walk away with the money and are in turn robbed in a parking lot. Stick and Frank rob a liquor store where the stubborn senior citizen behind the cash register is willing to die and allow his equally elderly wife to be raped and murdered rather than hand over the hidden money. All this and more while never going over the top and becoming unbelievable. It's possible to empathize with Stickley's predicament. He's basically a good man who does bad things. It is inexplicable to me that this book has not been made into a movie while many lesser Leonard novels have. The Stickley character reappears in the novel Stick, in which it is revealed that Ryan died in prison. That novel, Stick, was made into the 1985 Burt Reynolds movie.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great writing but maybe more appealing to male reviewers?, January 18, 2010

By 

K. Mickleson (Fairfax, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Swag: A Novel (Paperback)

My brother-in-law recommended Leonard to me and I started with 3 novels in 'Dutch Treat'--Swag, The Hunted and Mr. Majestyk--and since we share a love of mystery series I figured I'd love him. My problem with Leonard is I love his writing but I can't stand his characters. I mean how many lowlife thugs and their ditzy women who crave abuse of one sort or another can I warm up to or be amused by? His painful depictions of how men view women are hard to bear. It's true his flawless writing and plotlines keep me glued to the end but after it's over I just don't care what happened to any of the dumbheads I've just finished reading about. Maybe I'm just inured by professional liability to the charms of damaged men whose early life tragedies led them to self destructive behavior.

Wish I knew what percentage of all 5-star Leonard reviews were by males. I'll keep reading 'till I can't take it anymore as the pleasure of his prose and curiosity about what's going to happen are enough to keep me going for now.