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Mr Majestyk
Once, Vincent Majestyk crashed through a jungle with an M-15 and a sack of grenades. Now he works under the open skies of the American Southwest, growing melons on his farm. But a strong-arming punk came to Majestyk's fields and set off a violent chain reaction that left Majestyk without a friend in the world except for one tough, beautiful woman.
Heading to prison, Majestyk finds himself shackled beside a notorious Mafia hit man. And now a man who's been searching for peace and a man who's been looking for an angle are about to be set free by a violent breakout: making the farmer and the hit man each other's only hope and worst possible enemy.
Mr. Majestyk is vintage Leonard, an edgy, dark, fiendishly compelling tale of a quiet man making a whole lot of noise....
Heading to prison, Majestyk finds himself shackled beside a notorious Mafia hit man. And now a man who's been searching for peace and a man who's been looking for an angle are about to be set free by a violent breakout: making the farmer and the hit man each other's only hope and worst possible enemy.
Mr. Majestyk is vintage Leonard, an edgy, dark, fiendishly compelling tale of a quiet man making a whole lot of noise....
150 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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1,101 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
201books3,513followersElmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.
Father of Peter Leonard.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 241 reviews
November 2, 2013
When someone tries to strongarm melon farmer Vincent Majestyk, he quickly ends up beaten and soon Majestyk is in jail. However, the prison bus is attacked and Majestyk finds himself on the run with Frank Renda, a hitman. That's when things get complicated. Will Majestyk be able to fix the situation and get his melon crop in on time?
This early Elmore Leonard book is a pretty smooth read, like all of his stuff. Vincent Majestyk, melon farmer and Vietnam vet, is one of Leonard's typical good guys, rough around the edges and not entirely law-abiding. The plot's not all that complicated. Majestyk wrongs a couple people and they want him dead. Too bad no one told them he was a ranger in Laos and earned a Silver Star...
Charles Bronson played Majestyk in the movie. I've never seen it but it was easy to picture Bronson in the lead role as I read. Majestyk is the take-no-shit kind of guy Bronson usually played. He's not John Rambo but he's definitely capable. He just wants to get his damn melon crop in on time!
The bad guys are pretty par for the Leonardine course: slick but not as slick as they think they are. Unlike some of old Dutch's villains, I didn't find any of them to be very likeable and it was very satisfying once Majestyk starts taking the law into his own hands. If they had any redeeming qualities, I might have felt bad for them.
The story is one long cat and mouse game and it starts feeling like a western close to the end, like a lot of Elmore Leonard tales. I guess what I'm saying is that while Mr. Majestyk feels like a lot of Elmore Leonard tales, it's definitely one of the better ones. It's a high three or a low four.
This early Elmore Leonard book is a pretty smooth read, like all of his stuff. Vincent Majestyk, melon farmer and Vietnam vet, is one of Leonard's typical good guys, rough around the edges and not entirely law-abiding. The plot's not all that complicated. Majestyk wrongs a couple people and they want him dead. Too bad no one told them he was a ranger in Laos and earned a Silver Star...
Charles Bronson played Majestyk in the movie. I've never seen it but it was easy to picture Bronson in the lead role as I read. Majestyk is the take-no-shit kind of guy Bronson usually played. He's not John Rambo but he's definitely capable. He just wants to get his damn melon crop in on time!
The bad guys are pretty par for the Leonardine course: slick but not as slick as they think they are. Unlike some of old Dutch's villains, I didn't find any of them to be very likeable and it was very satisfying once Majestyk starts taking the law into his own hands. If they had any redeeming qualities, I might have felt bad for them.
The story is one long cat and mouse game and it starts feeling like a western close to the end, like a lot of Elmore Leonard tales. I guess what I'm saying is that while Mr. Majestyk feels like a lot of Elmore Leonard tales, it's definitely one of the better ones. It's a high three or a low four.
November 22, 2024
"I want to get a melon crop in. That's what I want to do."
I watched the Charles Bronson film a year ago. I wanted to see what the book was like. Elmore Leonard's writing exudes an easy toughness. The influence of Hemingway is undeniable. The first scene at a gas station, told from the point of view of a gas station attendant, a Mexican woman who wants to use a toilet and the men who are traveling with her is amazing in how easily Leonard shifts from the inner thoughts of one character to the other. A small but important act of humanity where he convinces the gas station attendant to let the migrant workers use the toilet introduces us to Vincent Majestyk.
At the center of the book is a Vietnam war veteran turned farmer, dedicated to picking his crop. But a run in with an assassin, Frank Renda, forces Majestyk to summon some of the savagery that he picked up during the war.
Despite the sparse prose, the characters are vivid. Here is Frank Renda, wondering what he is doing with his boring girlfriend and life - "She was starting to annoy him. Not too much yet, but starting. He had dumped a wife who had bored the shit out of him, talking all the time, buying clothes and showing them to him, and now he had a girl who was a college graduate drama major, very bright, who read dirty books. Books she thought were dirty. He said to himself. Where are you? What the fuck are you doing?"
The action is set in Edna, Texas - "The hospital in Edna had an emergency room and eighteen beds, but it was more an outpatient clinic than a hospital and looked even more like a contemporary yellow-brick grade school. For almost a year Majestyk had thought it was a school."
I wonder why an author who revels in his sparseness inserted this detail. Was it a comment on small town American architecture? Anyway, Leonard does not romanticize the agrarian life or anything. Except for a brief paragraph explaining why Majestyk the war veteran became a farmer. This is my fourth book by Leonard and I feel like I want to read everything that he has ever written.
I watched the Charles Bronson film a year ago. I wanted to see what the book was like. Elmore Leonard's writing exudes an easy toughness. The influence of Hemingway is undeniable. The first scene at a gas station, told from the point of view of a gas station attendant, a Mexican woman who wants to use a toilet and the men who are traveling with her is amazing in how easily Leonard shifts from the inner thoughts of one character to the other. A small but important act of humanity where he convinces the gas station attendant to let the migrant workers use the toilet introduces us to Vincent Majestyk.
At the center of the book is a Vietnam war veteran turned farmer, dedicated to picking his crop. But a run in with an assassin, Frank Renda, forces Majestyk to summon some of the savagery that he picked up during the war.
Despite the sparse prose, the characters are vivid. Here is Frank Renda, wondering what he is doing with his boring girlfriend and life - "She was starting to annoy him. Not too much yet, but starting. He had dumped a wife who had bored the shit out of him, talking all the time, buying clothes and showing them to him, and now he had a girl who was a college graduate drama major, very bright, who read dirty books. Books she thought were dirty. He said to himself. Where are you? What the fuck are you doing?"
The action is set in Edna, Texas - "The hospital in Edna had an emergency room and eighteen beds, but it was more an outpatient clinic than a hospital and looked even more like a contemporary yellow-brick grade school. For almost a year Majestyk had thought it was a school."
I wonder why an author who revels in his sparseness inserted this detail. Was it a comment on small town American architecture? Anyway, Leonard does not romanticize the agrarian life or anything. Except for a brief paragraph explaining why Majestyk the war veteran became a farmer. This is my fourth book by Leonard and I feel like I want to read everything that he has ever written.
September 3, 2021
This is a great early crime novel (1974) from Elmore Leonard. The protagonist is a Vietnam vet named Vincent Majestyk who is growing melons on a hundred and sixty acres in the rural southwest. He's struggling to get his crop in on time and is close to the edge of losing it all if he doesn't. All he wants out of life is to be left alone to get the job done.
To do so, he needs a crew to pick the melons for him. Like most other growers, he depends on a crew of experienced migrant pickers. But then a local wannabe badass named Bobby Kopas tries to tell Majestyk that he can only use workers that Kopas supplies--basically a bunch of winos who wouldn't know a melon from a basketball. An altercation ensues in which Majestyk punches out Kopas and winds up in jail for assault.
Sharing the cell is a sociopathic hit man named Frank Renda. While they and other prisoners are being transported to court, a group of Renda's cronies attacks the bus and frees him. Majestyk takes advantage of the confusion to run away as well. When Majestyk then attempts to foil Renda's escape, he makes a bitter enemy. From that point on, Renda is obsessed with the idea of killing Mr. Majestyk and insists that he has to do it himself. Majestyk is obsessed with the task of getting his damned melons to market and doesn't have time for this crap. The two will duel through the rest of the novel and, as is always the case in a book like this, only one can get his wish.
Like most of Leonard's early work, this is a taut, spare novel. The characters are well-imagined and the plot moves along at just the right pace. A very satisfying read from one of the real masters of the genre.
To do so, he needs a crew to pick the melons for him. Like most other growers, he depends on a crew of experienced migrant pickers. But then a local wannabe badass named Bobby Kopas tries to tell Majestyk that he can only use workers that Kopas supplies--basically a bunch of winos who wouldn't know a melon from a basketball. An altercation ensues in which Majestyk punches out Kopas and winds up in jail for assault.
Sharing the cell is a sociopathic hit man named Frank Renda. While they and other prisoners are being transported to court, a group of Renda's cronies attacks the bus and frees him. Majestyk takes advantage of the confusion to run away as well. When Majestyk then attempts to foil Renda's escape, he makes a bitter enemy. From that point on, Renda is obsessed with the idea of killing Mr. Majestyk and insists that he has to do it himself. Majestyk is obsessed with the task of getting his damned melons to market and doesn't have time for this crap. The two will duel through the rest of the novel and, as is always the case in a book like this, only one can get his wish.
Like most of Leonard's early work, this is a taut, spare novel. The characters are well-imagined and the plot moves along at just the right pace. A very satisfying read from one of the real masters of the genre.
January 11, 2024
When a Rambo type Vietnam war vet/melon farmer, hell bent on getting his crop harvested in time, crosses paths with a mob hitman you just know things will get interesting. An unrelenting pace of events all seemingly setting them on a collision course for an inevitable showdown keeps things taut. Though the prose is lean and snappy, there's no evidence of the humor or wit that characterize much of Leonard's later work. It's mostly nonstop brutality, with just a dash of sentimentality reserved for the farmer's relationship with a woman that proves to be equally hard headed.
September 8, 2019
Over-the-top action movie for the reading type.
In this novel an independent, small-time melon farmer ("Mr. Majestyk") is trying to get his crop in before it all rots in the sun out on his small-time hundred and sixty acre farm he's leased for two years. A local little shitheel bad-ass wannabe named "Bobby Kopas" maintains that the small-time farmer can't be using migrants to pick his melons. "Kopas" demands that he use a troop of winos supplied by folks who employ "Bobby".
The indie-famer stomps "Bobby's" ass and "Bobby" swears out a warrant on him.
"Mr. Majestyk" goes to county lock-up, worried about his melon crop. While in the slammer he becomes acquainted with a big-time major-league hit-man named "Frank Renda" who -to quote another film "woke up one morning and wasn't gonna be nobody's friend today" -or any day thereafter.
Complications regarding their relationship ensue.
You should be familiar with the Charles Bronson / Al Lettieri / Paul Koslo / Lee Purcell / film based on this novel and directed by the awesome Film Noir genius Richard Fleischer before embarking on this novel.
You'll realize how great Al Lettieri is as the bad guy "Frank Renda".
Heck, every actor in the film is perfect for their particular role/s.
But this isn't a film review.
This novel is compact and stripped down. A mob hit-man for hire and a half dozen of his criminal associates go after a pre-Rambo Vietnam veteran living with PTS and trying to harvest a melon crop in Nowhere, Arizona.
POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT:
Watch the movie first if for nothing else but the kicks and then read the novel in order to appreciate what a brilliant writer Elmore Leonard is so early in his non-Western career.
In this novel an independent, small-time melon farmer ("Mr. Majestyk") is trying to get his crop in before it all rots in the sun out on his small-time hundred and sixty acre farm he's leased for two years. A local little shitheel bad-ass wannabe named "Bobby Kopas" maintains that the small-time farmer can't be using migrants to pick his melons. "Kopas" demands that he use a troop of winos supplied by folks who employ "Bobby".
The indie-famer stomps "Bobby's" ass and "Bobby" swears out a warrant on him.
"Mr. Majestyk" goes to county lock-up, worried about his melon crop. While in the slammer he becomes acquainted with a big-time major-league hit-man named "Frank Renda" who -to quote another film "woke up one morning and wasn't gonna be nobody's friend today" -or any day thereafter.
Complications regarding their relationship ensue.
You should be familiar with the Charles Bronson / Al Lettieri / Paul Koslo / Lee Purcell / film based on this novel and directed by the awesome Film Noir genius Richard Fleischer before embarking on this novel.
You'll realize how great Al Lettieri is as the bad guy "Frank Renda".
Heck, every actor in the film is perfect for their particular role/s.
But this isn't a film review.
This novel is compact and stripped down. A mob hit-man for hire and a half dozen of his criminal associates go after a pre-Rambo Vietnam veteran living with PTS and trying to harvest a melon crop in Nowhere, Arizona.
POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT:
Watch the movie first if for nothing else but the kicks and then read the novel in order to appreciate what a brilliant writer Elmore Leonard is so early in his non-Western career.
April 4, 2023
Elmore Leonard’s style is to release his characters into a plot that is as chaotic as real life. Every one of his character’s decisions creates choices that demand subsequent decisions. And his characters, being as true to form as they are, make good, bad, brilliant and terrible decisions all the way through. By the time you reach the end of a Leonard novel, the beginning seems to have hardly mattered.
Leonard’s approach leads to some amazing moments in his books mostly because those moments arrive through the believable reasoning of his characters. For this approach to work, however, the characters need to be few in number. It requires concerted path to illuminate the reasoning of a hitman or a starlet or a US Marshal, and the greater number of characters in a Leonard novel, the less illuminated those paths become.
This is the problem with Mr. Majestic. There are so many characters that the magic becomes diluted and the path becomes less convincing. The story is still very entertaining, but the “Leonard Moments� did not reach out and grab me as with his other novels that have far fewer characters.
Leonard’s approach leads to some amazing moments in his books mostly because those moments arrive through the believable reasoning of his characters. For this approach to work, however, the characters need to be few in number. It requires concerted path to illuminate the reasoning of a hitman or a starlet or a US Marshal, and the greater number of characters in a Leonard novel, the less illuminated those paths become.
This is the problem with Mr. Majestic. There are so many characters that the magic becomes diluted and the path becomes less convincing. The story is still very entertaining, but the “Leonard Moments� did not reach out and grab me as with his other novels that have far fewer characters.
September 9, 2013
I picked this up at a Border's Going-out-of-Business sale for $1.79, so I knew nothing about it other than it was by dialogue master Elmore Leonard.
So to my surprise, there wasn't a lot of dialogue in the story, as the main character is cut from the same cloth as John Rambo in . However, the lack of dialogue did not keep me from enjoying the story one bit; I devoured all 150 pages of it in a single night's reading.
I think it helped that I pictured the main character as Charlie Bronson in my mind's eye. He plays Vincent Majestyk in the , which -- although I've never seen it -- makes sense as it seems written for him.
So to my surprise, there wasn't a lot of dialogue in the story, as the main character is cut from the same cloth as John Rambo in . However, the lack of dialogue did not keep me from enjoying the story one bit; I devoured all 150 pages of it in a single night's reading.
I think it helped that I pictured the main character as Charlie Bronson in my mind's eye. He plays Vincent Majestyk in the , which -- although I've never seen it -- makes sense as it seems written for him.
December 20, 2022
MR. MAJESTYK is Elmore Leonard's novelization of his original screenplay, both from 1974, and offers a one-time-only window into the master's approach to hackwork: he can do it in function, but he can't in form because he's simply too talented and too uch of a pro to phone it in. Yet, at 138 pages, there's nothing in the book that isn't in the screenplay, and it's clear Leonard, who was about to publish SWAG � the first of his true contemporary crime classics � wasn't interested in expanding on the characters or the story. But as it turns out, 138 pages is all he needs to give you compelling characters and nonstop conflict in a story in which everything makes sense.
The only thing missing from what would later turn out to be a signature Leonard novel is a more leisurely unpacking of Southwest melon grower Vincent Majestyk's past. In a twice-as-long novel, we'd meet friends, colleagues and enemies from Majestyk's past, and a simple story of revenge would turn into a complicated series of scam-driven set pieces. But one of Leonard's many gifts is giving the reader a little � just enough � to make more of out of it in their head, thus giving them a fully engaged experience. All Leonard gives us is that Majestyk, a decade before, was some kind of special badass in pre-Vietnam War Cambodia, and has some medals to go along with many lethal skills. We know he once had a wife and has a seven-year-old daughter he doesn't see, but we have no idea how he went from being a soldier to being a melon farmer, how he got the money, why he chose that life, etc. I would have liked to have known these things, but Leonard, in not providing them, essentially says: "You fill in those blanks." Which means he's showing me respect as reader, giving me room to engage with his creation, and I respect his respect.
I happened to re-read MR. MAJESTYK after re-reading David Morrell's FIRST BLOOD (1971), and a thought that would have never come to me had I not read those novels back-to-back came to me: Majestyk is basically John Rambo with about 30 percent more ability to make his way in the post-Vietnam world. Rambo drifts, apparently penniless despite his awards and successes, afraid of a place that has no place for him, Majestyk somehow finds his place while being an extreme embodiment of what would come to be the archetypal Leonard hero: quiet when others are loud, unresponsive to blather, quick to act, smarter than his apparent station in life would suggest, possessing of a sly sense of humor for those who bother to take the time to know him a little, and otherwise content to live his life and let others misjudge him based on what they see. All complete with a badass past, of course. Yet, he doesn't really fit in, and so people wonder and worry about him, usually too much for their own good, and trouble ensues. Trouble that only Majestyk (or Rambo) is equipped to handle.
The story, of course, is that, in trying to keep others from keeping him from hiring enough skilled workers to bring his melon crop to market before, Majestyk lands in jail and runs afoul of mob-connected contract killer Frank Renda, whose sense of superiority is so scorched by Majestyk's manhandling of him that he foolishly puts everything aside in his quest for vengeance. That sets up a strong FIRST BLOOD parallel: Frank Renda misjudges Majestyk until it's too late because all he sees is a melon farmer who momentarily, and implausibly, got the better of him, and thus is easy pickings for a stone pro like Renda. That's when we learn that because Majestyk doesn't react in any way Renda can predict, based on his past with his kind of predators and prey, he acts blindly, and winds up walking into a trap Majestyk has laid for him.
From FIRST BLOOD, as Col. Sam Trautman, Rambo's trainer, tells Will Teasle, the Kentucky deputy bent on murderous vengeance against the hippie "kid" who got the better of he and his men:
"Did you ever watch a chess match between an amateur and a pro? The amateur wins more pieces. Because the pro is used to playing with people who have a reason and pattern for every move, and here the amateur is shifting pieces all over the board, not really knowing what he’s up to, just trying to do the best he can with the little he understands. Well, the professional becomes so confused trying to see a nonexistent pattern and allow for it, that in no time he’s behind. In your case, you were in blind flight, and Rambo was behind you trying to anticipate what somebody like himself would do for protection. He would have expected you to lie in wait for him, try to ambush him, and that would have slowed him down until he understood, but then it would have been too late.�
In MR. MAJESTYK, Renda's hired guns make these observations: “You know what the trouble is?� the driver said. “The guy, the farmer, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He shouldn’t even still be around.� “That’s it,� the one in the back seat said. “If he knew anything he’d know enough not to be here. It’s like some clown never been in the ring before. He’s so clumsy, does so many wrong things, you can’t hit the son of a bitch.�
I don't kow if Leonard and Morrell were friends, or simply mutual admirers, even though it seems reasonable to think so as contemporaries and towering successes, but I'd bet anything that Leonard read FIRST BLOOD and it was lingering in his head to some extent as he created MR. MAJESTYK. That said, I want to knowhow and why John Rambo ended up a penniless drifter and Vincent Majestyk ended up owning a lot of farmable acreage and operating a business and fitting into post-Vietnam society well enough to get by.
That MR. MAJESTYK isn't interested in answering that question is no fault of his; he's got a hardboiled story of righteous vengeance and fatal hubris to tell, and he doesn't have the time or interest in anything else. In a later Leonard novel, he would have given us that much, and it would have made MR. MAJESTYK that much more interesting. But not necessarily better. It delivers the goods in its 138 pages, and there's nothing wrong with that.
The only thing missing from what would later turn out to be a signature Leonard novel is a more leisurely unpacking of Southwest melon grower Vincent Majestyk's past. In a twice-as-long novel, we'd meet friends, colleagues and enemies from Majestyk's past, and a simple story of revenge would turn into a complicated series of scam-driven set pieces. But one of Leonard's many gifts is giving the reader a little � just enough � to make more of out of it in their head, thus giving them a fully engaged experience. All Leonard gives us is that Majestyk, a decade before, was some kind of special badass in pre-Vietnam War Cambodia, and has some medals to go along with many lethal skills. We know he once had a wife and has a seven-year-old daughter he doesn't see, but we have no idea how he went from being a soldier to being a melon farmer, how he got the money, why he chose that life, etc. I would have liked to have known these things, but Leonard, in not providing them, essentially says: "You fill in those blanks." Which means he's showing me respect as reader, giving me room to engage with his creation, and I respect his respect.
I happened to re-read MR. MAJESTYK after re-reading David Morrell's FIRST BLOOD (1971), and a thought that would have never come to me had I not read those novels back-to-back came to me: Majestyk is basically John Rambo with about 30 percent more ability to make his way in the post-Vietnam world. Rambo drifts, apparently penniless despite his awards and successes, afraid of a place that has no place for him, Majestyk somehow finds his place while being an extreme embodiment of what would come to be the archetypal Leonard hero: quiet when others are loud, unresponsive to blather, quick to act, smarter than his apparent station in life would suggest, possessing of a sly sense of humor for those who bother to take the time to know him a little, and otherwise content to live his life and let others misjudge him based on what they see. All complete with a badass past, of course. Yet, he doesn't really fit in, and so people wonder and worry about him, usually too much for their own good, and trouble ensues. Trouble that only Majestyk (or Rambo) is equipped to handle.
The story, of course, is that, in trying to keep others from keeping him from hiring enough skilled workers to bring his melon crop to market before, Majestyk lands in jail and runs afoul of mob-connected contract killer Frank Renda, whose sense of superiority is so scorched by Majestyk's manhandling of him that he foolishly puts everything aside in his quest for vengeance. That sets up a strong FIRST BLOOD parallel: Frank Renda misjudges Majestyk until it's too late because all he sees is a melon farmer who momentarily, and implausibly, got the better of him, and thus is easy pickings for a stone pro like Renda. That's when we learn that because Majestyk doesn't react in any way Renda can predict, based on his past with his kind of predators and prey, he acts blindly, and winds up walking into a trap Majestyk has laid for him.
From FIRST BLOOD, as Col. Sam Trautman, Rambo's trainer, tells Will Teasle, the Kentucky deputy bent on murderous vengeance against the hippie "kid" who got the better of he and his men:
"Did you ever watch a chess match between an amateur and a pro? The amateur wins more pieces. Because the pro is used to playing with people who have a reason and pattern for every move, and here the amateur is shifting pieces all over the board, not really knowing what he’s up to, just trying to do the best he can with the little he understands. Well, the professional becomes so confused trying to see a nonexistent pattern and allow for it, that in no time he’s behind. In your case, you were in blind flight, and Rambo was behind you trying to anticipate what somebody like himself would do for protection. He would have expected you to lie in wait for him, try to ambush him, and that would have slowed him down until he understood, but then it would have been too late.�
In MR. MAJESTYK, Renda's hired guns make these observations: “You know what the trouble is?� the driver said. “The guy, the farmer, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He shouldn’t even still be around.� “That’s it,� the one in the back seat said. “If he knew anything he’d know enough not to be here. It’s like some clown never been in the ring before. He’s so clumsy, does so many wrong things, you can’t hit the son of a bitch.�
I don't kow if Leonard and Morrell were friends, or simply mutual admirers, even though it seems reasonable to think so as contemporaries and towering successes, but I'd bet anything that Leonard read FIRST BLOOD and it was lingering in his head to some extent as he created MR. MAJESTYK. That said, I want to knowhow and why John Rambo ended up a penniless drifter and Vincent Majestyk ended up owning a lot of farmable acreage and operating a business and fitting into post-Vietnam society well enough to get by.
That MR. MAJESTYK isn't interested in answering that question is no fault of his; he's got a hardboiled story of righteous vengeance and fatal hubris to tell, and he doesn't have the time or interest in anything else. In a later Leonard novel, he would have given us that much, and it would have made MR. MAJESTYK that much more interesting. But not necessarily better. It delivers the goods in its 138 pages, and there's nothing wrong with that.
March 16, 2012
Modern thriller writers could learn a lot from Elmore Leonard, his characters are interesting and well written but most of all PLAUSIBLE, thanks largely to his dialogue but also his observation of human nature. Everyone is fallible in a Leonard novel and not just in a way to make them seem tougher at the end when they kill a zillion bad guys (Lee Child puh-lease!)
I saw the Charles Bronson movie recently and expected a ball busting action packed killfest to have been made of an Elmore Leonard novel so I was surprised when I found it quite restrained. I knew I had the novel on the shelf and thought now was a good time to read it. It wasn't. The book is so similar to the movie that I found myself skimming and therefore enjoying it much less than I ordinarily might have.
This is not one of his crime novels but more of a revamp of his early western stuff and as such for me it didn't read as entertainingly as I would have liked. I'll take another break from Leonard now after two in such a short space of time.
I saw the Charles Bronson movie recently and expected a ball busting action packed killfest to have been made of an Elmore Leonard novel so I was surprised when I found it quite restrained. I knew I had the novel on the shelf and thought now was a good time to read it. It wasn't. The book is so similar to the movie that I found myself skimming and therefore enjoying it much less than I ordinarily might have.
This is not one of his crime novels but more of a revamp of his early western stuff and as such for me it didn't read as entertainingly as I would have liked. I'll take another break from Leonard now after two in such a short space of time.
September 8, 2013
When a wannabe tough guy tries to muscle in on Vincent Majestyk's melon farm, Majestyk lets him know in no uncertain terms that he's not welcome. Majestyk, a US Army war veteran, now has only one goal in mind: get his crop in and save his farm. He's not about to let some two-bit hustler dictate terms. This lands Majestyk in jail, though, where he faces assault charges and gets caught up in an escape attempt by a fellow jailbird, the notorious hit man Frank Renda. Offered a chance to run off with Renda, Majestyk just wants to get clear of the whole mess and return to his melon farm. However, Majestyk finds this isn't so easy after you've double-crossed a professional killer and now he's got more than the melons on his farm to worry about. But teamed up with Nancy Chavez, a tough and sassy lady hired on as a picker, Majestyk is about to teach Renda that this is one melon farmer you don't mess with.
Like many others, I was saddened by the recent passing of Elmore Leonard and initially felt the urge to read a bunch of his stuff that I haven't read yet (and there are a bunch), but I guess there is plenty of time for that. Since there won't be any more from EL I'm going to take my time to savor them.
So instead I decided to revisit a personal favorite, Mr. Majestyk. Even though it's sort of a minor EL title, this little novel packs a lot of punch in a small package. Part crime novel and part modern western, Mr. Majestyk doesn't have a lot of the snappy dialogue that EL is famous for, but the dialogue as well as the prose are distinctly Elmore Leonard and carry that same tough, casual feel. There is a lot of action in Mr. Majestyk. I read somewhere that EL wrote this as an original screenplay and wrote the novelization later. That may be because Mr. Majestyk certainly has a cinematic feel to it (strangely enough I don't believe I have ever, at the time of this review, seen the film starring Charles Bronson. I'm going to have to correct that deficiency posthaste).
Despite this fact, Majestyk, while seemingly a pretty archetypal hero character, actually has a lot of depth and this is stuff you sort of have to put together yourself since neither EL nor Majestyk seem to have a lot of patience for navel-gazing. Majestyk really is a great character. He's a working-class bad ass without even trying or realizing it. The other characters are drawn perfectly as well and I am always left in some amazement that EL can make characters come alive without letting a lot of pesky words get in the way.
I love Mr. Majestyk and I thank Elmore Leonard for writing it. Again, I'm sad about his passing, but I have a lot yet to read of his stuff. As long as there are Elmore Leonard stories to read and re-read, heck, that's about the best kind of immortality to have, if you ask me.
R.I.P., Elmore Leonard, 1925-2013
Like many others, I was saddened by the recent passing of Elmore Leonard and initially felt the urge to read a bunch of his stuff that I haven't read yet (and there are a bunch), but I guess there is plenty of time for that. Since there won't be any more from EL I'm going to take my time to savor them.
So instead I decided to revisit a personal favorite, Mr. Majestyk. Even though it's sort of a minor EL title, this little novel packs a lot of punch in a small package. Part crime novel and part modern western, Mr. Majestyk doesn't have a lot of the snappy dialogue that EL is famous for, but the dialogue as well as the prose are distinctly Elmore Leonard and carry that same tough, casual feel. There is a lot of action in Mr. Majestyk. I read somewhere that EL wrote this as an original screenplay and wrote the novelization later. That may be because Mr. Majestyk certainly has a cinematic feel to it (strangely enough I don't believe I have ever, at the time of this review, seen the film starring Charles Bronson. I'm going to have to correct that deficiency posthaste).
Despite this fact, Majestyk, while seemingly a pretty archetypal hero character, actually has a lot of depth and this is stuff you sort of have to put together yourself since neither EL nor Majestyk seem to have a lot of patience for navel-gazing. Majestyk really is a great character. He's a working-class bad ass without even trying or realizing it. The other characters are drawn perfectly as well and I am always left in some amazement that EL can make characters come alive without letting a lot of pesky words get in the way.
I love Mr. Majestyk and I thank Elmore Leonard for writing it. Again, I'm sad about his passing, but I have a lot yet to read of his stuff. As long as there are Elmore Leonard stories to read and re-read, heck, that's about the best kind of immortality to have, if you ask me.
R.I.P., Elmore Leonard, 1925-2013
October 23, 2014
What a fantastic book. I remember the movie with Charles Bronson fondly & that seemed to hold very true. It's been years since I've seen it, so I'm sure some details slipped through the cracks, but I could see all the actors as the fantastic reader laid it out for me. Great action, wonderful finish, especially Majestyk's last line. "You were right. He was trying to kill me."
Perfect! Few can write such a well focused adventure as Leonard.
Perfect! Few can write such a well focused adventure as Leonard.
June 18, 2017
A short, well-told tale that comes to an exciting climax. Lots of action. The characters are lightly-drawn. They are tough, rough, and designed to be liked or disliked. There is little grey here. I enjoyed it. Not a genre I normally read, and there is not enough to likely draw me back, but it was a side-trip I am glad I took.
May 5, 2018
At his best, Elmore Leonard is every bit as good as Westlake. This book actually reminded me of Donald Westlake's writing, especially the Parker series.
Recommened
Recommened
September 26, 2017
An oldie from Elmore Leonard, the King of Modern Noir...melon farmer, former spec op operator, is threatened by an organized crime hit man...great characters and fun plot...so much fun, I resurrected the old Charles Bronson movie and boy did they get the roles assigned correctly...spot on!
July 8, 2009
I picked this one up because it appeared on James Lee Burke's pleasantly idiosyncratic list of the all-time best mysteries, which was published recently in Parade magazine. Says Burke: "It’s one of the best portrayals of professional criminals I have ever read and a beautiful accomplishment in terms of dialogue and style." Mr. Majestyk is a noirish novel of the Average Guy school: melon farmer Vincent Majestyk cares about nothing other than saving his crop, but then he runs afoul of a local mobster and discovers that harvest time becomes more complicated when somebody wants to kill you. Tight, fast-paced, recommended.
October 30, 2017
An early non-western from EL, an indication that he was to become one of the greats of American fiction. I can see the resemblance to Valdez in “Valdez is Coming� with Vincent Majestyk in “Mr. Majestyk� both of which were made into movies). Valdez is Coming is one of my favorites and this one is right up there too.
March 30, 2021
I enjoyed this book however found myself wanting a bit more out of the character development. Would recommend for a good quick read.
February 13, 2024
Elmore Leonard wrote the novel Mr. Majestyk as a companion piece to his screenplay for the 1974 Charles Bronson film of the same name. It’s very close to the movie and if you like reading novels and viewing a movie back to back, you could certainly do worse.
I’m a 70’s movie guy, but never thought I’d go on a spree of watching Bronson movies, but there you have it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go pick some melons-I think they’re just about ripe.
I’m a 70’s movie guy, but never thought I’d go on a spree of watching Bronson movies, but there you have it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go pick some melons-I think they’re just about ripe.
April 18, 2023
What a fantastic early crime novel by Elmore Leonard. Fast past and not a wasted line of description or dialogue. The action practically flies off the pages. Leonard was a total master of his craft.
I was a little bit thrown off coming immediately from The Big Bounce, as there are also characters named Mr. Majestik and Nancy in his previous novel. However, after a few pages it became clear that there is no connection between the two books.
If you are looking for a good place to start with Elmore Leonard this would be an excellent choice.
5 melons out of 5. 🍈
I was a little bit thrown off coming immediately from The Big Bounce, as there are also characters named Mr. Majestik and Nancy in his previous novel. However, after a few pages it became clear that there is no connection between the two books.
If you are looking for a good place to start with Elmore Leonard this would be an excellent choice.
5 melons out of 5. 🍈
April 8, 2022
My first Elmore Leonard novel, and I picked a good one. But, from all the great reviews of his writing, I imagine I could have picked any of them.
One of the main attractions here (and in all of his novels presumably) is the crisp, straight-forward prose. There are absolutely no wasted words here. Leonard pens a tight, 188 page story that keeps your attention the whole way. I didn’t want to put this down, and I really didn’t have to because the reading was easy. That’s the sign of a great writer. I’ll be reading more of his 45 novels.
One of the main attractions here (and in all of his novels presumably) is the crisp, straight-forward prose. There are absolutely no wasted words here. Leonard pens a tight, 188 page story that keeps your attention the whole way. I didn’t want to put this down, and I really didn’t have to because the reading was easy. That’s the sign of a great writer. I’ll be reading more of his 45 novels.
December 24, 2020
A really good Leonard "crime" novel although it reads as so much more. What I mean is the complexity of the story built around melon growing and picking, and the lengths a man will go to protect his livelihood, adds layers around the crime part of the story. More memorable characters and, fortunately, I did not picture Charles Bronson as Majestyk in my mind's eye.
May 25, 2024
“He grows melons,� the deputy said. “Generally keeps to himself. I mean, he hasn’t given us any trouble before this.�
“Elmore Leonard can write circles around anybody writing crime novels today”� NY Times
Title: Mr. Majestyk
Author: Elmore Leonard
Format: Audiobook 4 hrs, 28 min.
Narrator: Frank Muller
Genre: Crime Thriller
Blurb: Vincent Majestyk was a soldier in Vietnam. He bought some land, and became a farmer, raising melons. Then a local thug thought he’d be an easy mark, leading to Majestyk’s arrest. In custody, he crosses paths with a notorious hitman� and things go wrong. Can Majestyk stay alive and also manage to harvest his crop?
Review: I was raised in an agricultural area, so this book’s setting was familiar. Majestyk hires migrants� including one very savvy young lady� to help get in his crop, during a time when Cesar Chavez fought for the rights of workers. When he takes them to his property, a local thug has brought some homeless to work his fields. Their confrontation leads to Majestyk’s arrest.
When he meets a stone cold hitman in jail, the action and tension ratchet up and race toward a life or death finish. I don’t want to say too much more about what happens, but the crisp writing and spot-on dialogue only add to the gripping tale.
The narrator, Frank Muller, is a legend and made the listen even more exciting. I highly recommend the audiobook, but I also bought the paperback to study Leonard’s writing!
September 21, 2023
Perfect light reading. Breezy enough to be an airport pickup but action packed enough to keep one's attention for multiple 90min commutes. Just gonna pick up every Leonard book I come across i think
March 11, 2019
An exciting semi-old-western, but the hero is a vet - and times change so fast; it’s great but a little old already.
February 27, 2018
Elmore Leonard was a master of the concise but powerful; famously in his dialogue, but also with his storytelling in general. This slimline novel is an intriguing and potent read that spans the border between Leonard's western tales (Three-Ten to Yuma, etc) and his later urban-based crime novels. Both chronologically and thematically.
Originally published back in 1974 (I read a 1986 Penguin version, pictured), and turned into a film starring Charles Bronson, MR MAJESTYK is an action-packed and compelling tale of a war veteran who wants to lead a simple life farming melons in 1970s Arizona, but gets thrown in jail when a wannabe tough guy tries to muscle in on Majestyk's melon business. When he then gets caught up in the jail break of a mob hitman, Majestyk just wants to retreat to his farm and bring in his melon crop. Which is tougher to do when the law, local thugs, and the mob itself may also be gunning for you.
There is definitely a western vibe to this crime novel, a man with a past trying to lead a simple life on the land, being harassed by local thugs and the law, trying to just do the right thing and live his life but also willing to take matters into his own hands when it comes down to it.
Reluctantly, perhaps, but more than capably.
I really enjoyed this read, devouring it in a night and a morning while travelling. A shorter, relatively simple tale that's very well told, and leaves you with memories of fascinating characters and plenty of action. It perhaps doesn't have quite the dialogue snap of Leonard's later books for which he became very famous, but the signs are there and overall this is a lesser-known gem among Leonard's oeuvre.
Leonard takes us into the hard-bitten and dusty life of the pickers and growers living the agricultural bowl of the southwest of the US. The back-breaking work and sweating under the sun to make a living. Or a subsistence. There's an honourable independence to Majestyk, who is engaging and easy to follow along with even if he doesn't say very much. He's a tough guy who doesn't try to act like one - and doesn't care much for those that do. With little brushwork, Leonard has created quite a portrait, with plenty of depth for the reader to absorb without relying on lots of introspection.
With very few words, Leonard makes his characters, settings, and this tale come to vivid life.
Originally published back in 1974 (I read a 1986 Penguin version, pictured), and turned into a film starring Charles Bronson, MR MAJESTYK is an action-packed and compelling tale of a war veteran who wants to lead a simple life farming melons in 1970s Arizona, but gets thrown in jail when a wannabe tough guy tries to muscle in on Majestyk's melon business. When he then gets caught up in the jail break of a mob hitman, Majestyk just wants to retreat to his farm and bring in his melon crop. Which is tougher to do when the law, local thugs, and the mob itself may also be gunning for you.
There is definitely a western vibe to this crime novel, a man with a past trying to lead a simple life on the land, being harassed by local thugs and the law, trying to just do the right thing and live his life but also willing to take matters into his own hands when it comes down to it.
Reluctantly, perhaps, but more than capably.
I really enjoyed this read, devouring it in a night and a morning while travelling. A shorter, relatively simple tale that's very well told, and leaves you with memories of fascinating characters and plenty of action. It perhaps doesn't have quite the dialogue snap of Leonard's later books for which he became very famous, but the signs are there and overall this is a lesser-known gem among Leonard's oeuvre.
Leonard takes us into the hard-bitten and dusty life of the pickers and growers living the agricultural bowl of the southwest of the US. The back-breaking work and sweating under the sun to make a living. Or a subsistence. There's an honourable independence to Majestyk, who is engaging and easy to follow along with even if he doesn't say very much. He's a tough guy who doesn't try to act like one - and doesn't care much for those that do. With little brushwork, Leonard has created quite a portrait, with plenty of depth for the reader to absorb without relying on lots of introspection.
With very few words, Leonard makes his characters, settings, and this tale come to vivid life.
October 2, 2009
Simple and satisfying. There's no fat in this story, just a series of action sequences held together by some thin story and character, but it sure is fun.
Personally, this story is right in my wheelhouse. While there's plenty of "urban thrillers", finding a good "rural thriller" can be a challenge. This book fits in that category.
My Dad grew melons, so admittedly, for me, any story about a badass melon farmer could do very little wrong.
Great read for a short trip through the desert.
Personally, this story is right in my wheelhouse. While there's plenty of "urban thrillers", finding a good "rural thriller" can be a challenge. This book fits in that category.
My Dad grew melons, so admittedly, for me, any story about a badass melon farmer could do very little wrong.
Great read for a short trip through the desert.
January 22, 2017
Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard (Phoenix 1974) (Fiction � Thriller). Vincent Majestyk is an ex-soldier who just wants to be left alone to grow melons on his farm. He winds up in jail after thugs threaten his operation. He soon escapes � with a mafia hitman handcuffed to his wrist. All Majestyk wants to do is go home and get his crop of melons in. This is pure Elmore Leonard at his best. My rating: 7/10, finished 2010.
March 26, 2013
Elmore Leonard's second contemporary crime novel is really more of an "ordinary guy pushed too far" kind of book, with the titular character, who is simply trying to harvest his crop, running into all sorts of trouble. Some of the coincidences were pretty unbelievable, as was the love interest, but Leonard's ear for dialogue and pacing are spot on. Leonard is still creating his style here, but it's an interesting look at his growth as a writer.
September 14, 2022
This is Elmore Leonard at his best. Vincent Majestyk is the quintessential example of a man who only wants to live his life quietly, doing an honest day's work and to be left alone. He's got a crop of melons on a modest farm in Arizona that need to be harvested and brought to the broker. Time is of the essence and Majestyk must rely on day-laborers, some of whom know little to nothing about picking melons, to get his crop to market.
Problem is, he refuses to bend to the local mob's will regarding who to hire, and when confronted, Vincent offers the expected "attitude adjustment" to the hood representing the mob's interest. Well, this begins the chain-reaction that will ultimately lead to Majestyk having to confront the mob boss, Renda, who is hell-bent on killing him. After Vincent's foreman and close friend had his legs broken and the rest of his hired help run off, Vincent finds himself alone and outnumbered. Well, not quite alone, for there is a tough, attractive woman who had previously come into his sphere, working his fields with some friends from Yuma before everything blew up. She and Vincent share an immediate attraction and it turns out that she doesn't scare easily.
The story moves along incredibly rapidly, with action and excitement aplenty. Majestyk served in Vietnam (the story was written in 1974), and is quite adept at guerrilla warfare, making him an able adversary once he decides to go on the offensive instead of waiting for Renda to destroy his life at his convenience. What transpires is every bit as satisfying as any good old Western, where the gunfighter who had wanted to hang up his Colt is forced once again to defend himself and face down the black-hatted foes. The only downside to this novel is how quickly it ends, leaving the reader wanting more.
Problem is, he refuses to bend to the local mob's will regarding who to hire, and when confronted, Vincent offers the expected "attitude adjustment" to the hood representing the mob's interest. Well, this begins the chain-reaction that will ultimately lead to Majestyk having to confront the mob boss, Renda, who is hell-bent on killing him. After Vincent's foreman and close friend had his legs broken and the rest of his hired help run off, Vincent finds himself alone and outnumbered. Well, not quite alone, for there is a tough, attractive woman who had previously come into his sphere, working his fields with some friends from Yuma before everything blew up. She and Vincent share an immediate attraction and it turns out that she doesn't scare easily.
The story moves along incredibly rapidly, with action and excitement aplenty. Majestyk served in Vietnam (the story was written in 1974), and is quite adept at guerrilla warfare, making him an able adversary once he decides to go on the offensive instead of waiting for Renda to destroy his life at his convenience. What transpires is every bit as satisfying as any good old Western, where the gunfighter who had wanted to hang up his Colt is forced once again to defend himself and face down the black-hatted foes. The only downside to this novel is how quickly it ends, leaving the reader wanting more.
September 10, 2024
Vincent Majestyk, decorated Vietnam vet and ex-convict, is just trying to make a straight living growing melons. A jailbreak gone wrong sends him headfirst into the scuzzy underbelly of the south, where he realizes he’s more in his element than ever.
Meh. There wasn’t really anything to dislike, but not much to make this book particularly memorable either. The plot and characters read like a pretty standard action movie, and Leonard does a decent job of getting that action across and keeping it going. To me, this book’s biggest shortcoming is that any time it drew near to the characters� motivation, it either redirected the topic or shut it down outright. It’s a very short book too, which I think reflects the fact that it’s missing something.
Meh. There wasn’t really anything to dislike, but not much to make this book particularly memorable either. The plot and characters read like a pretty standard action movie, and Leonard does a decent job of getting that action across and keeping it going. To me, this book’s biggest shortcoming is that any time it drew near to the characters� motivation, it either redirected the topic or shut it down outright. It’s a very short book too, which I think reflects the fact that it’s missing something.
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