9780060783228
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The Big Bounce audiobook

  • By: Elmore Leonard
  • Narrator: Campbell Scott
  • Length: 7 hours 45 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: August 03, 2004
  • Language: English
  • (1792 ratings)
(1792 ratings)
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The Big Bounce Audiobook Summary

“The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!”
New York Times Book Review

When the all-time greats of mystery/noir/crime fiction are mentioned (John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Robert Parker, etc.), Elmore Leonard’s name invariably tops the list. A true Leonard classic, The Big Bounce showcases all of the Grand Master’s acclaimed skills–twisty plotting, unforgettable characters, dialogue so razor sharp it could draw blood–as he chronicles the misadventures of a larcenous young man in a Michigan resort town who’s irresistibly drawn to a dangerous femme fatale, a rich man’s plaything, and the nasty little caper they plan to pull off together–if they can somehow manage to survive each other. The acclaimed creator of Raylan (aka U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, lately of TV’s smash hit Justified), Leonard has never lost the mojo that makes him “the King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times).

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The Big Bounce Audiobook Narrator

Campbell Scott is the narrator of The Big Bounce audiobook that was written by Elmore Leonard

Campbell Scott studied with Stella Adler and Geraldine Page, and appeared on Broadway in Long Day’s Journey into Night, among other productions. His many films include Longtime Companion, Singles, Music and Lyrics, and Big Night, which he co-directed.

About the Author(s) of The Big Bounce

Elmore Leonard is the author of The Big Bounce

The Big Bounce Full Details

Narrator Campbell Scott
Length 7 hours 45 minutes
Author Elmore Leonard
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date August 03, 2004
ISBN 9780060783228

Additional info

The publisher of the The Big Bounce is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780060783228.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Daniel

August 14, 2019

It’s gratifying to know that every Elmore Leonard novel will deliver on the anticipated experience. Every Leonard novel promises to create unique minds in its characters. As readers, we get to jump inside those minds and be taken on a ride through that bit of life populated by those people. As a consequence, you never know where you’ll be at the end of the story and seeing that final destination is often a result of duplicity, self-deceit, overconfidence, and any number of other psychoses that happen to invade the thought process of any human anywhere. That is why every book is different.The Big Bounce was no exception. We had Nancy Hayes, who perhaps demonstrates the limits of cruelty that can be inflicted by a woman in the same way that being a rapist exemplifies it for a man. We had Jack Ryan, who is so self-confident that he never sees that he is always one step away from greatness. And Mr. Majestyk (the original and not the later Leonard incarnation of the same name), who has found that the secret to life is to simply enjoy what comes his way. There are others, but these are the primary movers and shakers. The story itself had a nice feel to it. It reminded my of Dirty Dancing with its 1960s middle-class cabin motor court feel to it. However, this resort had Chutzpah. And that’s probably the best part of any Leonard novel. On the whole, he is not afraid to take the story to wherever his crazy characters are willing to go.

Justin

January 27, 2023

Like I’ve been saying for years: you can never watch too much baseball.

Carl

December 20, 2013

in The Big Bounce we meet for the first time (as far as I know), on Frank Ryan. He's a petty criminal and drifter whose first caper in the novel is to sneak into a resort house and steal the wallets of vacationers who have left their pants and purses behind while they surf and sunbath. Pretty daring stuff.He wanders around the resort a bit more, looking for opportunities of one kind or another and ends up getting himself hired as a handyman by the resort's owner, Mister Majestyk (who later has a book of his own, who seems unrelated to this guy except by Elmore's name. 'Sup with that, Elmore?) Anyhow, his job gives him the opportunity to wander from cabin to cabin and cruise the beach looking for still more opportunities. Several present themselves, but the choicest is a luscious young piece who's currently headlining as the paramour of the swankiest beach house in the neighborhood. Her sugar daddy's away a lot, and she enjoys adventures even more than the next girl, so she sets her sights on Frank. She soon has him involved in a scheme to steal a huge bunch of cash. A job of a size and strategy he's never pulled off before.He's not sure he wants the job or wants her, but the lure is strong enough to keep him hanging around and see things out. I guess this qualifies as a noir novel since the protagonist is pretty much a bad guy, though a likable one who doesn't really hurt anyone. As if all that weren't enough, Frank's being pursued by some wetbacks on the other end of the income scale who think they were stiffed on the beach house caper. It's a slippery slope he's sliding down, and the ending's as unpredictable as any I've read from our classic crime writer.

Dale

August 24, 2008

This was Elmore Leonard's first novel, published in 1969. All the components of his future novels are there: the terse dialog, the settings in Florida and Michigan, the sociopaths and psychopaths.Leonard has a method that is worth studying. He introduces places, then he introduces the people in those places, then he makes those people interact. It's a well-oiled machine, a Leonard novel.In The Big Bounce we meet a drifter who has done a little prison time and who recently nearly beat someone to death with a baseball bat. He's actually not a bad guy, not really, just a bit wild and unwilling to take crap from anyone, and not at all dedicated to the idea of hard work. And we meet a 20 year old woman, the mistress of the drifter's ex-boss, a sociopath, always looking for a kick, which usually involves doing damage to someone or something.You get a feeling from this book - the same feeling you get from the best of the Raymond Chandler novels. There's a kind of languor and coolness to the main characters that makes you think of Bogart and Bacall in The Big Sleep. But underlying that is a tension, the sense of something being wound impossibly tight, liable to break at any moment. It's a great combination.

Leftbanker

March 22, 2019

The bad news is that this isn’t one of his best, the good news is that it’s Elmore Leonard so it’s worth reading, and I guarantee that it’s better entertainment than whatever they’re showing at the local cineplex. Leonard is the king of two-bit criminals and Jack Ryan is as two-bit as any he had created. His femme fatale and sociopath, Nancy, is good enough to keep up with the rest of the crew of dirtbags in this novel.For me, the novels of Elmore Leonard work as palate cleansers when I need to erase the last few books I’ve read before it. I had just finished a 700-page crime epic and started a history of the Spanish Civil War of equal length when I decided that I needed a break and at a slim 71,000 words, this was the perfect fit. Now I feel that I can get back to the history.P.S. They made two shitty movies based on this book. I don't plan on watching either. Taking the critics's word for it seems like the prudent choice.

Chuck

March 26, 2017

Every Elmore Leonard novel provides a clinic on how to write a crime thriller. Even these early ones show a master at work.

Bobbie

May 30, 2018

Tough guy Jack Ryan, adept at petty larceny, encounters a seductive young woman who is pushing the boundaries of deception and violence in a quest for a bigger ‘bounce’ each time. Slowly (because they have to take their turn in the TBR pile) I’m reading all Leonard’s novels in order of publication. This was his move (in 1969) from westerns to crime, and it’s a goody. Two complex central characters, an engaging supporting cast, a gripping story, plenty of humour, and a great climax. I’m a little frustrated by the slightly open ending – but some readers do like them, and I know what I want to happen next, so I’ll assume that’s what will. Leonard’s spare style is brilliant, sometimes a bit tough to follow with all the American English, but well worth the effort.

Mike

February 23, 2013

I'm slowly becoming a big Elmore Leonard fan. He writes solid, modern crime fiction about interesting people who rarely do the expected. It doesn't hurt that the dialog is usually a joy to listen to. This was one of his first after an early start writing westerns, about an ex-con/ex-baseball player and a thrill-seeking kept woman. How they fit and how they don't kept me engossed throughout.

Jack

October 27, 2020

CuriousA bit of a light offering from Leonard, in what I believe was his first crime novel. The two main protagonists are both petty criminals, with petty being the operative word until the abrupt end. But is a Leonard, and that makes for an entertaining read.Two surprises. One was wondering if Tom Clancy was a Leonard fan, as the male lead is named Jack Ryan. The second surprise was a character named Majestyk, who in this case was not a melon farmer.

Jim

February 16, 2021

Mr Leonard's least favorite film adaptation of his work His favourite, rum punch q. tarantino.

Terry

February 03, 2019

Jack Ryan is a minor criminal arrested for a fight at a pick-up baseball game. Local Justice of the Peace Mr Majestic is a baseball fan, and on the possibility hes opponent carried a knife, Jack is released with no charges laid. Ryan is a former baseball prospect who never quite made it to the pros. His ex bosses at the melon plantation where he worked order Ryan to leave town. Mr. Majestic offers Ryan a job as handyman at his beach front cabanas. Ryan decides to stay. He takes the lead with two accomplices in a break in to steal wallets from a party, then takes the job with Mr. Majestic.He meets Nancy, a young mistress of a local millionaire. She is a master manipulator, perhaps even better than Jack. She tempts Jack into a robbery of her lover's payroll. But Jack is also tempted to live on the right side of the law. Then his partners in his last job return, and his former employer finds out he has not left town. The complications build in an easy-going fashion which matches Jack's personality and approach. The plot moves swiftly, while the emphasis is on character.This is an early Leonard crime story and one of his best. His writing shows the style he is known for, practiced in his westerns, but we also see the signs of a younger Leonard still developing his technique. The dialogue style is there, the basic yet swift plot, the scenarios and complications which build one on the other. There is also a reliance on long flashbacks as a method to develop character. It is not something I have noticed in other Leonard novels. It works fine here as we get long looks into both Jack's and Nancy's past. But it is something the later Leonard would not do. The only sub-plot that does not work is that of the young woman in the cabin who takes an apparent interest in Ryan, and who he thinks wants to seduce him. That entire scenario falls flat.The various threads and characters come together very cleverly for the finale, which ends in a perhaps mildly ambiguous conclusion, like this sentence, but remains true to the characters and is in that very satisfying.

Alan

June 16, 2012

This book wasn't at all what I expected. I haven't read Elmore Leonard before, but his series on the bookshelf caught my eye and it looked like the kind of thing I would usually read... it wasn't. This novel was fresh and different. I couldn't figure out where it was going and therefore, couldn't put it down!This book has swagger. It's fast-paced and to the point, while seemingly not much ever happens. Actually, the book ends just when it really hits its stride, and the readers are left turning blank pages and wondering "but then what happened?"The characters are peculiar and the way they relate to each other is sometimes surprising. Nancy is sexy, formidable and entirely deranged, but Jack takes it all in his stride and provides us with a nice balance... the supporting cast are pleasantly engaging, and each one has value besides driving the plot forward to it's inevitable (though sudden) conclusion.The end result, I think, is an understated story with genuine merit. It doesn't pretend to be profound or life-changing, and it won't blow your mind or toy with your emotions. There are no thrills and spills to be had, but plenty of insights into a screwy situation.I wouldn't recommend this book to a light reader or thrill seeker, but those who give it a chance will probably be pleasantly surprised. I, for one, am looking forward to reading it again...

Don

September 07, 2014

This book, the first of Leonard's Jack Ryan books, was a totally different style from those I had read by him before. It focused on the character of Jack Ryan, an ex baseball player and petty thief, who gets a job working at a lakeside resort. He gets into a relationship with the mistress of a married businessman and joins her in pranks that include breaking windows and breaking into houses. Eventually the story builds to her shooting another man while Ryan seemingly helps her to cover up the event. The book ends abruptly as the police are closing in at the end.I enjoyed the storytelling style of this book. I was a bit surprised by where he chose to end the story. It seemed like a bit more of a resolution was called for.

J.D.

October 06, 2018

Of all the beautiful, soulless, psycho chicks in literature, Nancy is as heartless and risk taking and nutso as it gets. For example, she loves to babysit as a teenager so she can methodically seduce the dads who drive her home, then as soon as they succumb to her Lolita-ish advances, tells them she's going to tell their wives. And she does. Jack Ryan is the ex-con patsy she's chosen to manipulate to help her pull off "the big bounce"--a super risky heist. But, Jack is not the patsy she thinks him to be, he's plenty shifty himself, so what happens when irresistible force meets immovable object? Stay tuned!

Sreeni

October 07, 2015

This is an old Leonard novel, almost as old as me. Some of the style that marked the later books is visible, but the protagonist doesn't fit the mold for the classic Leonardian heroes. They (LaBrava being an eg) put themselves in crazy situations from which they walk off unscathed while showing off their cool; this guy is nothing like that.But the book doesn't bore, and no Leonard fan should miss this, if nothing but to complete the tally.

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