Books by the writers of The Wire

[ericluxury]

Where to start? Anyone know...

I borrowed a copy of The Wanderers from someone and it was okay but it was a little more Warriors than The Wire. I wanted something a bit deeper.

So anyone know? George Pelacanos' best book? The Corner or Homicide? Best book by Richard Price?

[Dorvid Barnas]

The new Richard Price book, Lush Life, is getting great reviews.  I ordered one yesterday.

I've read and enjoyed Homicide, The Corner, Richard Price's Clockers, and Dennis Lehane's Mystic River.

[Jouster]

Drama City, both, Clockers.

The Wanderers isn't bad, but it's his first book and he was only 24 when he wrote it.  He got better.

[ericluxury]

The new Richard Price book, Lush Life, is getting great reviews.  I ordered one yesterday.

I've read and enjoyed Homicide, The Corner, Richard Price's Clockers, and Dennis Lehane's Mystic River.

Yeah, he read some passages from it on Fresh Air. It sounds fantastic. However, I never purchase books until they get released as paperbacks. $25 is too much unless its for pictures.

I figured as much about the Wanderers. I enjoyed it but it felt a lot like a first book.

Thanks for the recommendations...don't know where I'll start but I guess David Simon seems like the best place if it's more Wire that I crave.

[bruce]

I've read:

David Simon - Homicide (big fan of the show which a lot of was from the book)
Pelecanos - King Suckerman, Hard Revolution, and Nick's Trip
Denis Lehane - Gone Baby Gone, Coronado, and Shutter Island (not the most light hearted fare that's for sure)

[masterofsparks]

I've read everything by both Pelecanos and Lehane and they're pretty consistently great.

Pelecanos tends to use recurring characters, so it's advisable (but not necessary) to follow the series as they unfold. I'd start with the series of books focusing on Dimitri Karras. The Sweet Forever, my favorite Pelecanos book, is the third in the series, but you could be OK starting there. If you want to start at the beginning, this is the order (all of his books take place in Washington DC):

The Big Blowdown (set in the 40s, we only meet Dimitri as a baby. This book follows his father's life)
King Suckerman (set in 1976)
The Sweet Forever (set in the late 80s)
Shame the Devil (set in the 90s)


Lehane's books are set in Boston. His first five are a series about Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, a detective team. My favorite of these is the second, Darkness Take My Hand. Most people's favorite, including Lehane's, is the fourth, Gone Baby Gone, which was just made into a movie. My overall favorite of his books is Mystic River (which is better than the movie).

As for Richard Price, I've read three of his books: Clockers, Freedomland, and Samaritan. Loved Clockers, liked Freedomland, didn't like Samaritan at all.

As for David Simon's books, both Homicide and The Corner (co-written with Ed Burns) are very good. If you're a hardcore Wire fan, you'll notice lots of characters, traits, and anecdotes in these books that resurface in The Wire.

[Jouster]

I've also read all of Lehane's stuff.  I'm a fan of all the Kenzie/Gennaro books, and it's kind of a treat to watch him improve as a writer, even over the course of a single book.  My favorite is Gone, Baby, Gone, which believe it or not has even more plot twists than the movie version.  I also agree that Mystic River the novel was better than the movie (but I'm a Sean Penn hater, and his performance in that I find particularly over-the-top).  Shutter Island is being made into a movie by Scorsese at the moment.

I might be alone on this, but I found Homicide (the book) rough going.  It's compelling and interesting and obviously good, but it's very very dense and it's nearly impossible to put down for a week and pick back up again because of the amount of characters and story your mind has to keep track of.  If you do read it, I say do what I didn't do and power through in as short a time as possible.

Almost all of these books have things that later surfaced in The Wire, whether it's pieces of dialogue or plot points or character traits.  Clockers alone has had three different scenes appear in the show.

[dave from knoxville]

As far as Richard Price goes, I love Clockers.

In a mostly lighter vein, Robert B Parker's Spenser books are a lot of fun, short and easy to read, but with terrific dialogue that zings like a screwball comedy. He uses a lot of recurring characters as well, so while it's not essential to go through them strictly in order, some passages make more sense if you read some early ones first. They frequently have a government/corporate corruption theme, but in his wanderings, mostly through the city of Boston, he has contacts at every level of society. It's probably not as realistic as the greatest TV show ever produced (maybe someday I will try to see it), but they are fun to read, and about a kazillion times better than the TV show that did so much to influence people to assume that the books are also crap. Disposable they are, crap they ain't.

[masterofsparks]

Just to add onto my previous post and Jouster's, be forewarned that Lehane's books require a bit of strong stomach. Almost all of them feature some sort of child abuse (Lehane worked as a counsellor of abused children before becoming a writer), so there are some pretty crushing moments. Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River are particularly haunting in this respect.

[jane]

I'm gonna try to read some of these.  Thanks, guys.  Maybe not the Lehane.

[B_Buster]

Shutter Island is being made into a movie by Scorsese at the moment.

This news broke my heart. I guess Scorsese doesn't care anymore. I thought Shutter Island was crap. After reading that I knew I was done with Lehane.

[Chris L]

Shutter Island is being made into a movie by Scorsese at the moment.

This news broke my heart. I guess Scorsese doesn't care anymore. I thought Shutter Island was crap. After reading that I knew I was done with Lehane.

How far along are they w/ this?  I haven't read Shutter Island but Scorsese's name seems constantly attached to projects that don't go anywhere or that change hands.  The used paperback of Clockers I just bought states that he was supposed to direct the film version of that as well. 

[Jouster]

Shutter Island is being made into a movie by Scorsese at the moment.

This news broke my heart. I guess Scorsese doesn't care anymore. I thought Shutter Island was crap. After reading that I knew I was done with Lehane.

How far along are they w/ this?  I haven't read Shutter Island but Scorsese's name seems constantly attached to projects that don't go anywhere or that change hands.  The used paperback of Clockers I just bought states that he was supposed to direct the film version of that as well. 

Pretty far.  It's been cast, might even be filming now.  Max Von Sydow is in it!

B_Buster, Shutter Island was an experiment on Lehane's part.  To not like it is legit enough (I didn't love it either), but to renounce the (very talented) author because of it is foolish.  Of course, you were probably looking for an excuse to dump him after you saw his name on The Wire, so how can one blame you?

[bruce]

A writer friend of mine went to a class taught by Lehane. Where Lehane read from his upcoming book dealing with Irish Cops from the past.

[B_Buster]

B_Buster, Shutter Island was an experiment on Lehane's part.  To not like it is legit enough (I didn't love it either), but to renounce the (very talented) author because of it is foolish.  Of course, you were probably looking for an excuse to dump him after you saw his name on The Wire, so how can one blame you?

Take it easy, Jouster. I realize it's become your personal calling to defend anything remotely related to The Wire, but the fact is I read Shutter Island when it came out in hardcover, before I watched one episode of The Wire (or knew Lehane was one of its writers). I had seen positive reviews for Mystic River saying it was a cut-above standard crime fiction, so I gave it a try. It was OK, but the end was a big cheat and somewhat disappointing. Then I read Shutter Island and I was instantly reminded why I generally steer clear of crime fiction: the writing was terrible and the plot was absurd (what was Lehane's "experiment" with this book? To write a shitty book as fast as he could?). You're welcome to your opinion that Lehane is "very talented," but based on the two books I've read, I'll have to disagree. Very talented writers don't write books as bad as Shutter Island.