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Matchstick Men
Reviewed By Steve Nester As working class stiffs of the con game, Frankie and Roy are a team whose hard work provides them with a nice living?nothing glamorous, just a steady income from the result of practice and planning. Frankie, the younger of the two, dreams of the Big Score that will allow him to retire. Roy, the brains behind the operation, understands the value of staying in the game for the long haul. A saver, Roy is pretty set for retirement. Frankie has a nice car. Frankie sees Roy?s attention ebbing and asks for help with one more game?a big one?before Roy cuts out. Roy agrees, but to the consternation of Frankie and the greater distraction of Roy, a daughter, the product of a brief marriage years before, enters into Roy?s life and begins to settle in. What better way to spend quality time with his daughter then to teach her the tricks of the trade? And much to Roy?s pride, Angel is a natural. Starting out with cheating convenience store clerks out of change, Angela?s natural inclination leads her and Frankie and Roy right up the blow-you-out-of-the-water, pocket-cleaning denouement. Garcia?s prose is straight forward with a minimum of stylistic flourishes. It is the rhythm of the sentences, the knockabout cadences and vernacular of guys who wear green Dickies and steel-toed work shoes in a business that come to be known for its slick characters and smooth talk. One might think one deserves to be cheated by a higher class of criminal, but in Matchstick Men it is done so cleverly and simply, the reader will check to make sure one still has fingers before applauding. |
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