Customer Reviews

Swag: A Novel

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

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.

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.

An earlier novel, not as well known as the Florida books or the Chili Palmer stories, or even "Stick," which features the same main character, "Swag" is my very favorite of the dozen or so Leonard books I've read.

Stick and his partner his upon a novel way to cover the expenses of living: armed-robbery. The system they lay down keeps the scheme running safely for a while, until greed, mistrust and love interfere. Unusual for Leonard, this book is entirely from the criminal point of view, because one of them is the 'hero' as well. Great fun.

As a transplanted Detroiter, whenever I need a hometown fix, I read an Elmore Leonard or Loren Estleman novel. This particular Leonard gem, Swag, is especially satisfying. Leonard's characters cruise the streets you've cruised, and encounter people you've met. The premise: car salesman Frank Ryan teams up with Oklahoma cement worker and car thief Ernest Stickley ("Stick") to live the high life, via armed robbery. Frank is the one whose carefully crafted rules allow them to live in luxury, but it's Frank's deviation from the rules that brings about the duo's downfall. The book is a provocative portrait, warts and all, of pre-recession Detroit: before the auto industry collapsed entirely, when Hudson's still had its downtown flagship department store, and before crack infected the streets of the city.

This was the very first Elmore Leonard that I ever read, and it ended up being far more than what I imagined from a pulp paperback novel. I identified so much with this, I thought he was telling my story.

Other reviewers have already stated it, but 'Swag' really is some of his best writing and shows a mind that knows the material that's being covered. The is a work of desperation, strong prose and a well-thought out story that is indelible and lasting.

Excellent source for a film or a good place to begin with Elmore Leonard for the uninitiated. This is also long before his strong 'Pro-Police' position that he has now, and is quite interesting, historically and from a point of perspective -- looking back on how much he's written and how he's changed. Anyone familiar with Leonard's politics might find the impetus of the main character's motivations and the world he inhabits a bit 'telling', painting Leonard as a bit of a hypocrite now, or you can see it as I do, and just chalk it up as human-development.

Disco Noir i use this term i got from horror/mystery author Norman Partridge. Written in the seventies, it gives you that odd feeling of freedom, before everyone was hit with such heavy resposabilties, like Aids and drugs, and robbing convince stores all over the Detroit area.

After attempting PRONTO and GLITZ and not seeing what the Dutch Leonard hype was all about, I decided to give him one more chance with SWAG...and I was electrified to the point where it almost killed me. This book is incredible. Leonard creates such a glitzy, sleaze-filled atmosphere that you're there in Detroit, with Stick and Frank Ryan, feeling the rush and the tension of their risky escapades for that cold, green swag. The dialogue is right-on; the plot and characters are nothing less than brilliant. This is the book that turned me on to Leonard and his numerous crime-filled novels of shimmering heat and the excitement of being bad.

This was one of Leonard's best books that I have read. The relationship between Stick and Frank played out like a twisted version of the Odd Couple. I though the character development and plot were also exceptional. Definitely read this one.

This was a good book. At first I thought it was like a bunch of small stories about two newbie stick-up men. How they went about thinking on how to stick-up grocery stores, bars, etc... and then actually pulling them off. But then, as the book went on, every thing started to get really well tied together in this great plot. This is one of my favourite Elmore Leonard books. The characters were great as what the plot. This is also the introduction to the Stick character who after you read this book, you wanted more of. (He then later followed it up with the book...Stick) SWAG is classic Leonard at its best.I've read about 20 of his books and this is within the top 5.