Reviewing: "Galveston--A Novel" by Nic Pizzolatto

When I was a kid growing up, Glen Campbell was very popular and a favorite of my parents. So, I heard a lot of his stuff either around the house or in the International Harvester Travelall while we towed a trailer from our home in North Texas to various points around the West. “Lineman For The County” was a good one as was”Amarillo By Morning.” We traveled a lot every summer so while I had seen Amarillo from the back seat of the “Travelall” many times it was never in the morning. Usually it was late afternoon with black and green storm clouds and tornado warnings o n the car radio.

We never did go down to the Texas Gulf Coast as my parents had absolute zero interest. I had always meant to take the wife and later the kids down sometime on a trip to see the Alamo, and other sites but we never did get that done. Any traveling I do these days other than to the doctors and testing places is via my mind through reading. As such, when my wife picked up Galveston: A Novel from the library and brought it home for me, all I could think of was another famous song of Glenn Cambell’s titled “Galveston.” I hadn’t thought f that one in years and yet it played in my head as a constant backdrop to Nic Pizzolatto’s strong debut novel of the same name. Fitting his background as a proflic and accomplished short story writer in both literary and mystery venues, the novel is of two parts both of which could easily be read as rather long short stories.

Roy Cady goes by the name of “Big Country” and he is in real trouble – not just because of the junk in his lungs that his doctor just informed him is going to kill him pretty soon. Stopping smoking now isn’t going to save his life. Neither is the fact that the woman he loved, Carmen, is now making time with Stan, a bar owner. A bar owner who does a lot of shady stuff and employs Roy and several other folks as a crew to do various nefarious things for him. He has never fit in with this crew and recent events have not helped Roy.

Stan wants Roy and another guy, Angelo, to go visit a guy by the name of Frank Stenkiewicz and get him to do what needs to be done. His final instruction is for Frank and Angelo to not take their guns. Something Stan has never said before and that instruction as well as the way he is being talked to and Carmen’s behavior and other factors cause Roy to figure it for a set up. It is and before long Roy is on the run from New Orleans to Galveston with passengers that he can’t seem to get rid of for a variety of reasons. 1987 is not the best of time for Roy.

2008 is not much better though Roy is still alive. An old man walking his dog on a Texas beach should not be of interest to anyone. However, it doesn’t take Roy long to notice the ominous skies of the gulf predicting the coming hurricane or the man conducting surveillance on him. Old debts are finally coming due for many including Roy and this time he is not running from man or nature.

While crime is at its core, Galveston: A Novel is more of a literary character study of several characters. As such the focus is primarily on motivations and not so much action oriented as many books in the crime and mystery genre are. Therefore, those looking for lots of action may be disappointed as this novel is more about how one choice led to another choice which led to another ultimately delivering a fate twenty plus years in the making. A good novel that certainly isn’t run of the mill, author Nic Pizzollatto combines mystery and literary elements into a tale that is noirish and enthralling.

Galveston-A Novel

Nic Pizzolatto

http://www.nicpizzolatto.com

Scribner (Simon & Schuster)

http://wwwsimonandschuster.com

June 2010

ISBN# 978-1-4391-6664-2

Hardback

260 Pages

$25.00

Material supplied by the good folks on the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2010