The Man Who Came Uptown
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
Michael Hudson spends the long days in prison devouring books given to him by the prison's librarian, a young woman named Anna who develops a soft spot for her best student. Anna keeps passing Michael books until one day he disappears, suddenly released after a private detective manipulated a witness in Michael's trial. Outside, Michael encounters a Washington, D.C. that has changed a lot during his time locked up. Once shady storefronts are now trendy beer gardens and flower shops. But what hasn't changed is the hard choice between the temptation of crime and doing what's right. Trying to balance his new job, his love of reading, and the debt he owes to the man who got him released, Michael struggles to figure out his place in this new world before he loses control.
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This was a great book. First time reader of George Pelecanos and impressed with his capacity for making me like all the characters, even those who did terrible things. The characters have such depth and there was good and bad (sometimes very bad) in all of them. The main character, Michael, is the heart of the story. As the story opens he is being released from prison (without knowing that a shady investigator had something to do with it). He found a love for reading while inside, and became fond of the librarian who guided him. The librarian, while mostly happy, struggles with recognizing and finding compromise with the yin and yang of marriage. Michael gets a job and is determined to lead a good life when the investigator comes calling for a “favor”. The lives of Michael and the librarian intersect after his release and she is a bellwether for him and his attempt at a new life. The investigator and a cohort do horrible things in the name of evening the score and Michael struggles with fact that he owes the man for his release. I found the ending to be very satisfying and hopeful.
