I just finished my second read of Don Winslow’s The Kings of Cool.
My first read was just three months ago.
I had to read it again.
The Kings of Cool is the prequel to his terrific novel Savages. It impressed Oliver Stone so much he made it into a movie.
No writer has influenced me on how to tell a story like Winslow. He unleashed something, and story telling became fun–more so for me–than for “atta boys” and book sales.
Someone wrote, “The joy of writing is a gift.”
I believe that.
Winslow keeps pushing the envelope to break new ground, and “go where no man has gone before”.
The Kings of Cool is the prequel to his terrific novel Savages. It impressed Oliver Stone so much he made it into a movie.
No writer has influenced me on how to tell a story like Winslow. He unleashed something, and story telling became fun–more so for me–than for “atta boys” and book sales.
Someone wrote, “The joy of writing is a gift.”
I believe that.
Winslow keeps pushing the envelope to break new ground, and “go where no man has gone before”.
A two word chapter?
He reaches for the edge by often ignoring journalism class instruction and the Chicago Manual of Style.
Is he wrong?
SURPRISE: Publishers like Simon and Schuster just keep raking in the $$$, waiting for more screen rights to bear fruit, like another picking up the Scorcese and DeNiro option on The Winter of Frankie Machine. What about Warner Bros acquiring Satori for Leonardo DiCaprio?
Where do Winslow’s ideas come from?
Roswell?
They’re analogous to Neil Diamond’s song structures, lyrics, and titles that seem to have come from “somewhere else”. For example:
Cracklin’ Rosie
Huh?
I Am, I Said
Huh?
Winslow comes up with other universe metaphors that get you nodding, and then shaking your head all the while chuckling at his creativity–and his testosterone.
He frequently uses abbreviations, OGR (Old Guys Rule) and characters with “different” names like Chon and Hang Ten, girls named O and Sunny Day–all with geneology resembling the wiring configuration in the back of my computer desk. Somehow, they all flow together.
It is a radical departure from his early Neil Carey Private Investigator writings.
Where did his epiphany come from?
In his time, Hemingway was a style departure from standard prose.
He laid a groundwork that evolved to the similar “teletype” writing style of James Elroy (Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential) and others.
Winslow is an heir to that style.
He has a NASA approach to conventional writing, in essence, asking the world of “by the book" writers, “Why leave it Earthbound?”
Last year I discovered him by reading California Fire and Life.
It was described as a classic in one recent Amazon review of The Kings of Cool.
After a few chapters of “Wow”, I stopped reading, went to my computer and suddenly words and phrases blistered my keyboard.
After I finished California Fire and Life, I bought and read every one his books, The Dawn Patrol, The Power of the Dog, Savages, Gentlemen’s Hour and others.
Winslow’s story telling was once described by a literary critic as him sitting at a bar with friends telling them what happened.
Will he ever be classified as a great master or be a reading assignment in a journalism class?
No.
Is he interesting and fun to read?
You betcha.
The man has stolen my fascination with Nelson DeMille. Tom Clancy, and Robert Ludlum. I still buy them and enjoy them, but I keep waiting for more from Don Winslow.
He doesn’t just break the mold. He shatters it and turns it into the Milky Way.
