Product Description

For Joey Recevo and Pete Karras, two kids from one of Washington's rougher neighborhoods, the easiest work to find after the War is all criminal---providing a little muscle for a local boss. But Karris is soft on his fellow immigrants, and the boss can't let his mob get soft, so one of his boys gives Karras a painful lesson. Three years later, it's the same mob that figures big Nick Stefanos's grill needs protection---and this decision will once again bring Joey and Pete face-to-face. In this final confrontation, the two of them will find the meaning of friendship, the heart of honor, and the cost of both. Powerfully told, elegantly wrought, The Big Blowdown is a knockout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44638 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
After several well-received Nick Stefanos crime novels, (A Firing Offense; Nick's Trip; Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go), Pelecanos goes for broke with a gangster epic that chronicles 25 turbulent years of immigrant life in post-WWII Washington, D.C. He rises above the in-built predictability of the material to unleash a charged page-turner liberally doused with sex, death and irony. Pete Karras might be a confirmed skirt-chaser, but he's way too soft on the guys he's being paid to shake down. As a penalty for shirking his duty, he gets his legs broken and ends up limping through the streets he loves, working the counter of a diner owned by Nick Stefanos (the father, presumably, of the Nick who stars in Pelecanos's earlier books). When a kid shows up looking for a lost sister who's addicted to heroin and whoring to support her habit, Pete finds himself a cause. Whores, especially well-stacked ones, are being slit open in the city, and Karras's childhood pal, Jimmy Boyle, now a beat cop, is anxious for a collar. Joey Recevo, who grew up on the streets with Karras and Boyle, is still a shakedown artist, and now his next target is Nick's place. There isn't much in the plot that truthfully surprises, but the tale of these three friends and how their loyalties are tested is feverishly alive. Pelecanos lovingly recreates old Washington with small details about soft-drink brands, finned cars and cherished smokes. The ending is a haze of gunsmoke that drifts away to leave a mixed tableau of heroism and futility. With stylistic panache and forceful conviction, Pelecanos delivers a darkly powerful story of the American city.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Set in Washington, D.C., from the 1930s to the 1950s, Pelecanos's (Shoedog, St. Martin's, 1994) latest novel traces a group of boyhood friends as they make their way in the richly detailed Greek and Italian neighborhoods of the city. Peter Karras, a Greek, and his friend Joe Recevo, an Italian, grow up together, serve separately in World War II, and reunite for a time after the war as Joe becomes involved in organized crime in the city. Peter cannot stomach the practice of shaking down immigrants for loan vigorish and is brutally cast out by the gangsters, as Joe stands by. The two friends will inevitably cross paths again. Pelecanos's plotting is superb, as is his use of dialog and sense of place. Innumerable details that are brought in to the story turn out to be essential plot elements further down the line, so that the entire book seems to have been conceived as a unified thought. A fine achievement; recommended for all fiction collections.?David Dodd, Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The always brilliant Pelecanos--Nick's Trip (1993), Shoedog (1994)--writes a powerful, evocative story filled with stomach-turning violence and a vision of reality that's as sharp and dangerous as ground glass but tempered with a deep nostalgia for long-lost innocence. Young Pete Karas, a Greek immigrant's son, is inseparable from Joey Recevo, who is a ladies' man even at the age of 11. During World War II, the two grow up and apart but are reunited when they sign up as musclemen for a loan shark. When Pete, who lacks the stomach for the job, chickens out of strong-arming a fellow Greek, the loan shark's boys come after him with a baseball bat, and Joey lets them beat his best friend senseless. Crippled and depressed, Pete marries, has an affair, takes a job as a short-order cook, and sires a son, learning along the way the values of loyalty and friendship. Meanwhile, Joey is a Mafioso in the making, sticking with the loan shark and thriving on the violence and the flashy lifestyle. But the two men are bound to clash. When Joey's boss tries to extort protection money from the headstrong Greek for whom Pete works, the two childhood friends come face to face. Pelecanos brilliantly captures the darkly debonair ambience of the late 1940s, with characters and dialogue that would be perfect for a Gable-Bogie-Edward G. Robinson cast. Be forewarned: this isn't a nice story with a happy ending. It's stark, menacing, terrifying, violent, gut-wrenching--and perfect of its kind. Vintage Pelecanos. Emily Melton

Customer Reviews

A very satisfying period piece
Fans of George Pelecanos will not be disappointed in this excellent novel. Set in D.C. during the years just before and after WWII, his familiar cast of characters inhabit a world of hope and violence that somehow seems appropriate to the American Dream. The plot is engaging and believable, the action is fast paced, and the character portrayals are as satisfying as a reader could want. This is a great story of friendship, betrayal and flawed redemption. Much more than just a 'crime novel' (and this is true of his other books as well) The Big Blowdown evokes a time when everthing seemed possible, from great success to 'the Big Blowdown' (atomic annihilation) and tells the story a few immigrant kids whose future turns out to be quite different from any they would have imagined.

Reading a Pelecanos book always leaves me feeling as though I had touched a piece of real life. This book has the added appeal of touching a real piece of time gone by as well. Very satisfying. I highly recommend it.

Washington In the 40s
We follow the fortunes of Peter Karras, a Greek American living in Washington DC, before, during and after World War II. After coming out of the war a hero, Karras, along with his childhood friend Joe Recevo, finds himself drifting along, occasionally providing muscle for the Mafia in their protection rackets. When Karras makes the mistake of showing leniency towards one of his boss's "clients", it's inevitable that he has to be taught a (painful) lesson. The story is ultimately a commentary on how the two friends deal with the different directions their lives have taken, particularly when their paths cross again.

The mood of the time and place are captured with remarkable vividness. Even the street noises are described in such a way that it almost feels as if we are there watching the drama unfold in front of us. I feel this is the defining novel for George Pelecanos and a must read for Pelecanos fans. I can't recommend it highly enough without appearing to gush, so I'll just say that it's a fantastic piece of American literature that manages to capture the 40's very nicely.

A wonderful, different kind of crime novel
This was the first Pelecanos book I read, almost by accident. When I was done, I was completely satisfied and hooked on this writer. This is set in the '40s, around the Washington DC and Maryland area, and I loved the history, the subtle ways of establishing place and time and community through dialogue and action. It is a very character driven novel, the best type, right on the edge of what a crime novel is considered to be. I'm grateful to see Pelecanos joining the ranks of those writers who are pushing the envelope in crime writing. This novel is more the story of the life of a man who attracted violence more than about the violence itself. Great, great work.