I normally don’t care for people who try — and inevitably fail — to imitate Elmore Leonard and recreate his secret special sauce. But I think Patrick Hoffman achieves the Leonard Effect without ever appearing to break a sweat because he’s not engaging in conscious homage. But he has the same lean, mean, dry sense of compact glide that gave Leonard his quality of weightless liftoff. I’m a big admirer.
I also think Hoffman steers clear of Dutch’s winking self-knowledge. Leonard’s characters are, at times, borderline hilarious. Hoffman’s aren’t, I think by design.
Excellent point. Hoffman’s humor is in a far more subtle and dry register, to the point that it almost isn’t there. He just lays the occasional absurdities and contradiction down in a matter-of-fact way and doesn’t try to tip the reader’s reaction.
I normally don’t care for people who try — and inevitably fail — to imitate Elmore Leonard and recreate his secret special sauce. But I think Patrick Hoffman achieves the Leonard Effect without ever appearing to break a sweat because he’s not engaging in conscious homage. But he has the same lean, mean, dry sense of compact glide that gave Leonard his quality of weightless liftoff. I’m a big admirer.
I also think Hoffman steers clear of Dutch’s winking self-knowledge. Leonard’s characters are, at times, borderline hilarious. Hoffman’s aren’t, I think by design.
Excellent point. Hoffman’s humor is in a far more subtle and dry register, to the point that it almost isn’t there. He just lays the occasional absurdities and contradiction down in a matter-of-fact way and doesn’t try to tip the reader’s reaction.