The Big Bounce

The idea had come to her suddenly right after seeing him at the migrant camp. The idea was wild, so far out she had only smiled at first, thinking of what it would do to Ray Ritchie. But the more she thought of the idea, the more she liked it. It was fantastic, way out, and beyond anything she had done before. The trouble was, the whole thing would depend on Ryan...If he didn't have a reason to stay, she might have to give him one. Which shouldn't be too hard. Then play with him to see what he was really like. But the whole deal, staying and going along with her idea, both, depended really on how much nerve he had.
Which she would have to find out.

Starting out with your protagonist beating up on some gent with a baseball bat is not the best way to meet the man you're about to spend the next several hundred pages with, but that's how we meet Jack Ryan, a man who once dreamed of being a Major League baseball player, who now makes his living through a combination of migrant work and thievery. Nancy is the big boss's mistress, a bored, spoiled woman looking for the big bounce, that one be all end all thrill that will make her feel alive. So far throwing rocks and shooting through windows...without regard to whether people are behind them or not...is just not cutting it. Her crazy idea, as mentioned in the quote above, will take a lot of nerve, as Jack tries to figure out why he's with this absolutely mad woman.

It's a strange little story, filled with the razor sharp characterization Leonard is known for. Razor sharp indeed...his characters are not always likable, but they are interesting. Though there are a lot of things that happen, there isn't a real main plot that acts as the focus of the characters actions, making this much more of an exploration of Nancy's personality: why she's like this, what a person like this will do out of this perverse drive she has, as well as a study of the undeniably strong attraction that Jack, who is really sensible and pragmatic, has for her. One of the minor characters sees him and, in her minor state of crush, describes him as a bullfighter. This description is more apt than she can ever know, for he does risk his very life in a dance with a bull who can go from being pleasant to psychotic in a few seconds. Even he doesn't really know why he's so interested in her, and the exploration of his character, the choices he makes in order to be with her, and his realizations about their rather twisted relationship are a showcase of how strong a writer Elmore Leonard is. There are very few people who could have pulled this type of story off and still make it so incredibly readable.

There is, as I said, some action. For instance, Nancy's lover isn't exactly thrilled with Jack's being around, and is willing to kill him to make his point. Also, Jack decides to go back to his thieving ways...a choice that will have an interesting impact on his relationship with Nancy.

This book is a reprint of the original 1969 novel. It is also a book that was made into a movie starring Ryan O'Neil in that same year...and has just been made into another movie, starring Owen Wilson and Morgan Freeman. I guess I'm not the only one intrigued by the quirky and intricate characters.