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I have come to the conclusion that there is no reliable measure by which the magnitude of Elmore Leonard's ability can be gauged. He was at one point referred to, with some accuracy, as America's most popular unknown author. He is no longer unknown; he has, in fact, created his own subgenre of sorts, inhabited by tough guys, clever guys, and tender and tougher women. One can never predict what is going to happen in an Elmore Leonard novel, or even what he will pick as subject matter from one work to the next. At a point when an author of his stature, of his talent, could phone in a reliably entertaining work, Leonard continues to test, and stretch, the boundaries that he previously marked off.
So now Leonard favors us with THE HOT KID, a work set in the Oklahoma of the 1930s. It is Leonard's most ambitious, and arguably best, work to date, rich in dialogue, characters, and subtle contrasts. Leonard focuses primarily on Carl Webster and Jack Belmont, two men of not-dissimilar backgrounds with divergent career paths. Webster's father is a career Oklahoma pecan farmer who became wealthy quite by accident when oil was discovered on his land. Belmont's father deliberately sought oil and found it, becoming a millionaire by arduous and dangerous trial and error.
Both men seem to have their respective courses set in their teen years --- Webster's through a chance encounter with an outlaw, Belmont's through a family tragedy that he precipitates out of misfeasance at best and malfeasance at worst. They each fashion a rebellion of sorts against their fathers. Webster rejects his father's gentle entreaties to continue the family pecan farm business by becoming a U.S. Marshal. He quickly grows famous for his killing of a notorious bank robber, as well as his code of honor. Belmont, for his part, also rejects his father but in a more heinous manner. He blows up one of his father's oil derricks, then by turns attempting to blackmail him and kidnapping his paramour, before embarking on a bankrobbing spree throughout Oklahoma and Kansas.
It isn't long before Webster is on Belmont's trail. Belmont, however, wants to be Public Enemy Number One, and the quickest way for him to acquire that title is to hunt Webster.
Part of Leonard's appeal always has been his ability to breathe characters upon the printed page, and he never has done so more sharply than on the pages of THE HOT KID, etching good and evil in bas relief and highlighting where the boundaries meet and blur. Leonard also subtly paints the rise and fall of fortunes in Oklahoma --- a trajectory that played itself out over the course of a decade --- against the backdrop of a tale of easy money, easier women, and rough justice. This is a masterful tale, told by The Master.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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