Sunday, February 05, 2012

"If proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go."

That's Elmore Leonard, quoted here in Olen Steinhauer's piece about Leonard's new novel, Raylan. Here's the fuller quote:
Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the ­narrative.
I like it.  Steinhauer, though, doesn't. Or at least he's torn by it:
Jazzy prose that occasionally lets go of “proper usage” is Leonard’s trademark. He’s a stylist of forward motion, placing narrative acceleration above inconveniences like pronouns and helping verbs. While this creates in most readers a heightened sense of excitement, newcomers may find the transition from complete sentences daunting; it may take a little time to accept Leonard’s prose before you allow it to do its work on you. I’ll admit to having to make such an adjustment when beginning “Raylan.” At the same time, I’m also a novelist who lives in fear of my copy editor; being such a coward, I can’t help respecting Leonard’s grammatical bravery. 
It's been a long time since I read him, so help me out here Elmore Leonard fans: I think I get the notion of 'narrative acceleration' and that sounds like a good description of Leonard's writing. But does he somehow omit pronouns and helping verbs in ways that English speakers don't?

May just have to read that book …

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I like about the quote is that it sounds like he's gonna have to off Proper Usage.

Joe said...

Does any novelist really fear their copy editor?

John said...

I've been enjoying Elmore Leonard novels for nearly thirty years and if there's one thing I'd bet on: he doesn't have to worry about what any copy editor thinks!
As we all know, the representation of spoken language is always going to look very different from that of many other kinds of written language. You may never actually hear the kinds of spoken language Leonard conjures up - which is probably just as well! - but you can't help believing that somehow it sounds so 'right'.

Mr. Verb said...

OK, gotta read this novel, then. Thanks!

John said...

Try LaBrava, which I think is still my all time favourite, run a close second and third by Bandits and Freaky Deaky.

Amy Alkon said...

Swag's my favorite, but Raylan, the new one, is just amazing. You can tell he had a blast writing it.