One of the great writers of modern times is gone

Elmore Leonard died today. He was 87. He looks remarkably similar to my friend Roger at 87 but they didn't look like each other before that. Elmore created a crisp spartan cinematic style of writing that I now see popping up in other younger writers such as Dennis Lehane, Mystic River author helping himself to the ease of description that relies on very few words and a whole lot of internalized national cultural perspectives. It worked for Leonard for years and years and I'm sorry to say the last book I read of his I didn't finish, a first for me for any Leonard book, because I didn't want to hear the Leonard lingo anymore, it rang false for the very first time and I took the book back to the library unread. Last week. And he died today. I'm sorry, Leonard, I didn't know you were becoming history..