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When the Women Come Out to Dance CD

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I should qualify this review with the warning that this is my first experience reading Elmore Leonard. I cannot tell fans of his other 39 books and assorted screenplays how this compares with his general body of work. I can tell you how it stands on its own.

This is an interesting, varied collection of nine short stories. While all share a world where alcohol is a constant undercurrent and the characters have all seen better days, they are quite distinct from one another. There is a has-been baseball player working against himself for a chance at a decent job, two cancer patients connecting in a Florida retirement community, a former stripper trying to "lose" an abusive husband, an African American veteran of the Civil and Spanish American Wars facing racism, a cattle rustler trying to help a woman he finds abandoned on a remote outpost, a lawman returning to his hometown to rout someone he had known in his youth who is now leading a neo Nazi militia, and a Hollywood stuntman returning to his Oklahoma roots to reclaim the family ranch from thugs and exorcise the family curse at the same time. There is a Karen Sisco episode, too, featuring the US marshall character currently the subject of a television series.

Some of the stories read like sketches or treatments for screenplays. The Sisco story stands on its own, though it could easily have been a subplot from a novel or the television show. I thought the western stories were the most fully realized. All of the fictions turn on whether the good guy gets what he/she wants. The storytelling is of the cinematic variety, hinging on action riddled with reversals. Leonard uses words economically and every single one is well chosen, strong, vivid. In an era when typos and editing slips mar too many books, this edition (hardcover at least) is free of them and is also assembled with an attractive lay-out design.

This generally digestible and entertaining Leonard sampler collects two novellas and a seven short stories written over the last decade. For those who've never read any of his many many many books, it's a pretty representative introduction to his range and style. For those who are intimately familiar with his work, there are new sides of a few familiar faces. For those like me, who've read seven or eight of his novels, and found them diverting, this is more of the same, page-turning, if not particularly memorable, genre fiction. The stories can all be readily grouped into pairs.

Both the title story and the opening story are a shade under 20 pages and feature attractive rich women who are running some kind of scam. In "When the Women Come Out to Dance", we meet an exotic dancer who married a wealthy Pakistani doctor. A year later, sitting in the lap of luxury, she professes to be worried that she will meet the gruesome fate of other wives no longer desired by their traditional Pakistani husbands-being burned to death. Her new Colomian maid might be the solution to her problem... In "Sparks", the widow of a famous record producer is grilled by an insurance company adjuster following the suspicious destruction of her house during a California brush fire. The two stories chug along through small intrigues and banter, arriving at satisfying, yet predictable conclusions.

Two of the stories are twenty-page vignettes in the lives of characters who are features in full novels. "Chickasaw Charlie Hoke" is a humorous and colorful story about how the title character lands a job as celebrity greeter for a Vegas casino. What happens after this is detailed in Leonard's 2002 book, Tishomingo Blues, whose main protagonist Dennis Lenahan is also introduced off-stage in this story. "Karen Makes Out" is throwaway story about U.S. Marshall Karen Sisco, and a brief fling she has with a man who may or may not be a bank robber. Her character is featured in Leonard's 1996 novel Out of Sight, and the 1998 film of the same name, where Jennifer Lopez played her.

Two more stories weighing in at slightly less than twenty pages showcase Leonard's abilities in the Western genre (in which he excelled before moving on to crime). "The Tonto Woman" is about a woman who had been kidnapped by Indians and tattooed on her face. Many years later, she makes it back home only to be shunned by her husband-until a crafty and honorable Mexican cattle rustler comes along. "Hurrah for Captain Early" shows the side of Leonard that believes in using his stories to tell a little history. It's about a black U.S. Army veteran of the Spanish-American war, and in it, Leonard pokes holes in the myth of the Rough Riders.

The two novellas are around sixty pages and benefit from the extra space. Set in hardscrabble turf of Harlan County, Kentucky, "Fire in the Hole" is about a group of white supremacists, led by an ex-coal miner turned preacher, turned tax protestor, plotting a little domestic terrorism. Hot on their trail is U.S. Marshall Raylen Givens (the star of Leonard's 1993 book Pronto and its 1995 sequel Riding the Rap), who grew up with the leader of the gang. In "Tenkiller", a rodeo star turned Hollywood stuntman is returning to his tiny hometown in Oklahoma following the death of his wife. When he finds a family of nasty white trash thugs have conned their way onto his land and into his house, he doesn't waste any time running them off. The novellas proceed in fairly familiar fashion, with the expected violence and conventional ending. Reading them in close succesion, however, reveals a high level of similarity. The protagonists are cut of the same cloth, in the their late 30s, early 40s, with rugged, well-worn good looks. Each is returning home, where they must rid the place of an evil white-trash man of their own age, with younger and dumber sidekicks. Each will encounter a woman from high school who has been pining for him for twenty years. This is not to say the stories aren't entertaining, but it does reveal how Leonard is able to use the same template over and over.

The one story that doesn't really fit in anywhere is "Hanging Out at the Buena Vista", a throwaway fifteen pages about a pair of cancer patients in a hospice. In the final anlysis, if you're a Leonard fan, you'll like the stories, if you've never read him, this is a good way to dip into him to see if you do.

I am always biased towards short story collections, the buffet of literature. You'll almost always find something you like, and if you don't like it you're not stuck with it for long. I enjoyed all these stories and highly recommend this book. Leonard spans a good range of subjects, settings, and people all while continuing with his strength of character development and gritty plot lines. My only criticisms are that many of these stories read like script treatments for TV and movies. I think that if you take the time to read a book it should offer more than TV in convenient book form. Also, I think Leonard at times takes the easy way out in describing his characters. Instead of spending time describing, he just tells you that he/she looks like movie star X. It's concise but lazy; it does get the job done.

One of Leonard's best collections... a quick read and a variety of stories... great at the beach or the subway ride to work...

Elmore Leonard can write circles around most pulp fiction writers, but even the best writers struggle to fill novels successfully. You have to carry narratives for 300 pages, and even Leonard has produced his share of undernourished text. That is why his 2002 short story collection "When The Women Come Out To Dance" is so satisfying.

Calling them "short stories" is actually overselling them a bit; some are just sketches where very little of anything happens. A veteran rides into town and gets jawed at by some bigots. Two terminal cancer cases chat their way through what amounts to a first date. A woman answers questions about a house that she may or may not have burned down.

What makes these pieces readable and enjoyable is Leonard's way with dialogue, his ear for the clever quip disguised as an observation: "Girls named Kitty don't think much of becoming grandmothers."

Two stories stand out; the long ones "Fire In The Hole" and "Tenkiller." They aren't that long, about 60 well-spaced pages each, but they have the most involved plots and feature likeable characters who Leonard takes his time setting up. "Fire In The Hole" especially would make for a good movie, featuring the antics of a moronic gang of white supremacists who are being investigated by U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, one of several characters from earlier Leonard novels to appear here.

Also appearing here is Karen Sisco, previously seen in the book and movie "Out Of Sight," and here as the possibly romantic partner of a bank robber in the funny, touching "Karen Makes Out." It's funny how other characters you come across in these stories are described as resembling movie actors like Linda Fiorentino and Harry Dean Stanton, but no one mentions Jennifer Lopez, who actually played Karen in "Out Of Sight."

The other stories work to varying degrees. The two westerns, "The Tonto Woman" and "Hurrah For Capt. Early," felt thin to me, as did "Chickasaw Charlie Hoke," which presents us with a baseball player trying to get a job as a greeter at a casino. But all have their moments, and the weaker ones are over so quickly you hardly mind the dead spots.

In short, there's really nothing lost in the transition from Leonard the long-form writer to this, except for sentiment, which has never been the man's forte anyway. And you get a couple of short but satisfying reads in "Fire In The Hole" and "Tenkiller" which are up there with the best crime fiction Leonard has written.

"He could tell a story," is the last line in the last story here. It fits its author like a glove.

Get it! I cannot tell you how many Elmore Leonard books I have read, but I can tell you this: there is no better master of written dialog on the planet. Crime is his typical subject genre, but I was happy to see a couple of "westerns" in this installation (harking back to his earlier career).

For Elmore Leonard, dialog is the vehicle that moves the action along. Character development will come through with dialog, and those character circumstances will begin to engross you. Before too long, you've formed ideas about all of the players, and then all too soon, you are into the thick of the story's situation. Like his novels, these characters are flawed, seedy, heroic and very very human. The stories are typically about situations that could prove to be bigger than the characters themselves. Some will achieve that right of passage, and some will not.

This was my first Elmore Leonard experience with short stories. I was very pleased... especially with the ending to the title story -- what a nasty little twist!

Others have already sung the praises of most of the stories in this collection. I want to correct an oversight. A fourteen- page story, The Tonto Woman, may be one of the very few perfect short stories. My reaction on reading it was that only one short story (whose title escapes me) by Hemingway could equal it in terms of creating another world with completely believable characters, setting and Leonard's impeccable dialogue. If reading can be transporting, then this slim fourteen pages has taken me further than I've been before in a book.

Taye Diggs does and excellent job here of reading a broad selection of Elmore Leonard's short work. His delivery is wonderful! As a woman I have to admit I got kinds of caught up in the performance while on a long drive- was much more engrossing than other such readings I have listened to. I love the work of Leonard and it is well represented here- hard luck heroes, dumb criminals and women who are just questionable but irresistible to our heroes. From modern day law enforcers rousting white supremecists in the backwoods of the south, to a cowboy come home to his ranch in western Oklahoma , to rousting western tales and all kinds of wonderful colorful details that Leonard is known for. One of my favorite things is to read his early short stories that have been adapted to longer works- you get a glimpse into his mind as characters grow and change. Great job Taye ! I will be looking forward to more audio offerings with you.

Imagine nine pieces of the best candy you've ever eaten. You try to take your time, but find you eat them much too quickly. They are gone too soon. You wish there were more. And marvel at the skill of the candymaker.

Will somebody please let me know when a better writer than Elmore comes along? The short story is a difficult vehicle to create and resolve a mystery, yet the form proves no impediment for Mr. Leonard. In fact, next to some of his novels, I'd say less is more. The snappy dialogue, the characters'charisma, the heightened situations are all notable stylistic trademarks of Mr. Leonard. He does not let the reader down. I only wish there were another dozen stories to calm my greed for more.