Order GALVESTON here
I used to have a deranged kid named Dave for neighbor when I was a kid. He wasn't handicapped or anything, he was just a psychopath. He's probably in jail today. Dave had an annoying feral cat who attacked every other pet in the neighborhood. After not seeing his cat for a couple days I ask him: "Dave, where's that fucking cat of yours?" You know what he answered? No, you can't possibly know. "The other day I was in the garage with the thing. Cut its mustaches and shot some WD40 up its asshole. To see what would happen, you know? It ran until it hit a garage door at the end of the street and broke its neck. Swear to God."
What I'm going to say will sound disrespectful, but I'm going to say it anyway. I was reminded of this bizarre incident in my childhood when reading True Detective's creator Nic Pizzolatto's novel Galveston. Pizzolatto is my old neighbor Dave and Galveston is the poor cat. Don't get me wrong, I love True Detective (even Season 2), but this is a far cry from the writing that took America by storm on HBO. Let's be real, it's a competent, yet predictable novel that couldn't possibly foreshadow Pizzolatto's amazing run on cable television.
Roy Cady is a local mob enforcer in New Orleans who was just diagnosed with lung cancer. He is sent on a suspicious assignment by his boss Stan Ptitko, who requests he ventures into a potentially dangerous situation unarmed. Shit hits the fan during the said assignment, Roy kills everyone and makes a run for it with what seems to be a prostitute named Rocky. The two run away to Galveston, Texas with Rocky's little sister Tiffany in tow. That's about the gist of it. The three drift for another two hundred pages trying to find a sense of security and the strength to trust one another, but redemption is not in the cards for everybody involved.
I would describe myself as a Nic Pizzolatto fan. I loved everything I've read/seen from him so far, but Galveston is a good level below that. It's competently written. Pizzolatto is one hell of a stylist and he can see the light that makes someone special in just about everybody. Galveston though, is more telegraphed than a looping overhand right thrown by Butterbean a couple hours after last call. About 50 pages into the novel I could've told you more or less what was going to happen. Galveston is a little too complex and well-crafted to actually be cliché, but it is painfully surpriseless. Even when the author tried to throw a curve ball halfway through, it ended up not mattering in the big picture.
I get why there are people out there who love Galveston. It tells a story of human connection and redemption that some people need to hear. Having someone to care about and protect is something every human being is longing for and Nic Pizzolatto portrayed Roy Cady's growing need to leave a legacy behind efficiently and accurately. I even caught myself feeling a little weepy over the last two chapters, which is something I'm not proud of myself for since Galveston so obviously steered me in that direction. If anything, it's a testament to Nic Pizzolatto's talent as a writer. He can turn a bad story on its head and make it work in a couple pages. It just take its sweet freakin' time to get there.
So yeah, I wasn't crazy about Galveston and I believe my reasons are valid. I could also understand why the novel grabbed you by the balls because it does certain things very well. If you go back to your list of favorite writers, I'm pretty sure your favorite books from them aren't their first efforts. In rock n' roll, it's not rare that first albums are a band's best work, but in literature it's often the opposite. Completing a novel requires so much time and effort, you need to do it a couple times before honing your craft and the road was eventually well-traveled for Nic Pizzolatto. Galveston is just not, in my humble opinion, a mandatory stop for fans of his work like me. It's competent, but it will not cast a new light on the author's legacy.