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Nic Pizzolatto

Galveston: A Novel Paperback – June 14, 2011

by Nic Pizzolatto (Author)

452 customer reviews

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From the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO crime series True Detective, comes a dark and visceral literary debut set along the seedy wastelands of Galveston.

On the same day that Roy Cady is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he senses that his boss, a dangerous loan-sharking bar-owner, wants him dead. Known “without affection” to members of the boss’s crew as “Big Country” on account of his long hair, beard, and cowboy boots, Roy is alert to the possibility that a routine assignment could be a deathtrap. Which it is. Yet what the would-be killers do to Roy Cady is not the same as what he does to them, which is to say that after a smoking spasm of violence, they are mostly dead and he is mostly alive.

Before Roy makes his getaway, he realizes there are two women in the apartment, one of them still breathing, and he sees something in her frightened, defiant eyes that causes a fateful decision. He takes her with him as he goes on the run from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas—an action as ill-advised as it is inescapable. The girl’s name is Rocky, and she is too young, too tough, too sexy—and far too much trouble. Roy, Rocky, and her sister hide in the battered seascape of Galveston’s country-western bars and fleabag hotels, a world of treacherous drifters, pickup trucks, and ashed-out hopes. Any chance that they will find safety there is soon lost. Rocky is a girl with quite a story to tell, one that will pursue and damage Roy for a very long time to come.

Recalling the moody violence of the early novels of Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson, this powerful, potent, and atmospheric thriller is impossible to put down. Constructed with maximum tension and haunting aftereffect, written in darkly beautiful prose, Galveston announces the arrival of a major new literary talent.

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"An often incandescent fever dream of low-rent, unbearable beauty.... Galveston, in its authenticity and fearless humanism, recalls only the finest examples of the form." - New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Nic Pizzolatto is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO crime series True Detective. His fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Oxford American, The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, Best American Mystery Stories, and other publications. His written work has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award, and his story collection Between Here and the Yellow Sea was named by Poets & Writer’s Magazine as one of the top five fiction debuts of the year. He lives in Los Angeles. Galveston is his first novel.

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (June 14, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439166668
ISBN-13: 978-1439166666
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 452 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #275 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
- #423 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Hard-Boiled
- #646 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Crime

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Good novel

May 31, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

... even without that "for a first book" qualifier. Not up to the level of True Detective, but then, books don't have actors playing the parts - just your mind.
Good writing, interesting writing even. Good characters and a decent plot.
Worth your time but don't expect TD.

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Gabrielle L Nuzzi

Watching a film while reading

February 2, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I frequent east Texas and southwest Louisiana for work and loved the character and plot development for True Detective (S1). Naturally, when I saw he wrote a book called "Galveston" I had to read it. Never has anyone described that region of the country in a more perfect or accurate way. Nic is a very artistic writer. I felt as if I was watching a film while reading. This could easily be adapted to a screenplay.

It did take me awhile to read the book. While relatively short, it is SO detailed that I just took my time to make sure I drank it all in. I also feel that if the reader has never been to that region of the USA, part of the story gets lost. I personally love the descriptions of Sulphur and Orange, but if someone has no clue the culture or significance there, I could see where they might think "why on earth is he still talking about that"

8 people found this helpful

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Steven Axelrod

True Detective auteur tries his hand at Noir fiction

June 27, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This novel, by True Detective showrunner Nic Pizzolatto, reveals many of the same qualities -- good and bad -- as his HBO series. Fascinating troubled characters, vivid action sequences, nihilistic philosophy, difficult compromised sexual relationships ... as well as an air of adolescent pretention, pose rather than posture -- and in the writing itself a rather hit-or-miss attempt at neo-Chandler image-making. Some of the metaphors work well ("You could broker your future here. Dump your memories into the white light of the gulf like leaves into a bonfire"). Others, not so much ("The clock's ticking sounded like a woman in heels, walking at a very slow and relentless pace across a marble floor."). On the whole, it's worth reading despite the grim story-line and acute authorial self-awareness. Bu not quite the masterpiece it seems to think it is.

8 people found this helpful

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Richard Sutton

Deeply satisfying and disturbing.

April 16, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I rarely give a novel five stars, unless I know that it's going to embed itself in my brain for some time to come. The author first came to my attention through HBOs True Detective. The first season was one of the most disturbing storylines that TV had ever produced. I found the characters utterly believable, repellent and still very familiar. All weakness and mortality was deeply, intimately portrayed. When I heard Pizzolatto had written a novel, I was all in. The characters were again, as disturbingly real as in TD, but this story, an extended escape, led through territory I thought I knew. As I've found it very hard to focus on much of anything the past year, I didn't expect this to be the page turner it was for me. Two sittings and I read it through. It was as if two of my favorite authors, James Lee Burke and H. P. Lovecraft had collaborated on a dream from which there was no waking. If you enjoy a deliciously dark read and don't need any promise of redemption to carry you, this is the book for you.

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Gritty & atmoshperic

May 19, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

"Galveston" is the tale of Roy Cady, a middle-aged ex-con who works as an enforcer for a New Orleans mobster. Roy ends up "on the run" with a young prostitute named "Rocky". Most of the story centers around the time Roy and Rocky spend in Galveston, and how (uncharacteristically) Roy comes to care for Rocky and tries to change the course her life is taking.

Where to start with this one? My feelings about this book are complicated. The writing is very, very good, with characterization that is unflinchingly honest - almost painfully so. This is not a "Hollywood" interpretation of a bad guy paired with a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold. No, Roy Cady is the real thing - brutal, violent and hard. Rocky is a survivor. These are not "nice" people, but the author humanizes them and manages to wring some empathy out of the reader. The dialog is succinct and very natural sounding. The author uses some beautiful prose to tell a not-so-pretty story. There are passages that are so evocative that you feel like you're not just reading, but that all your senses are engaged.

Despite the excellent writing, there were times when I found the story hard to read. I found it dark and depressing - relentlessly depressing. It's a gritty and realistic look at some of the ugliest things in life, and to tell the story any other way would be a cop-out, but nevertheless there were times when I felt overwhelmed by the sadness playing out on the pages. After I finished the book I found that I wasn't quite finished with the story - I found myself still thinking about these characters and mulling over parts of the storyline. I read a lot, and though I enjoy much of what I read, it's the rare book that really leaves an impression on me. This one did.

Some things you might like to know before reading...

The story is told in the first person with Roy as the narrator. There is some switching back and forth in time and because of that I'd recommend picking this up when you have a stretch of time to read. It might be hard to keep the thread of the story if you only read a chapter or two then put the book down. There is some strong language, some of it sexual and there are several scenes with explicit depictions of violence.

4 people found this helpful

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