Out of Sight

A Love Story From Elmore Leonard

I had been reading and brooding over some difficult books and some merely pretentious books and found I needed a lighter touch. Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) is a writer I have come increasingly to appreciate, and I turned to his novel "Out of Sight" (1996), in part because it was the only novel in the Library of America's four-novel compilation of late Elmore Leonard novels that I hadn't read. This novel gave me what I needed and more. It is a crime novel with Leonard's light touch and snappy dialogue, but it is also a surprisingly touching love story and character study.

Set in Florida and in Leonard's beloved Detroit, the book tells of the relationship between Jack Foley and Karen Sisco. Foley, 49, is a lifelong bank robber while Sisco, 27, is an ambitious Deputy U.S. Marshall in Miami. The unusual pair meets by chance as Foley is escaping from a Florida prison at the same time that Sisco arrives at the prison to serve a summons. Foley and his cohorts worry that Sisco will foil their escape. Thus he and Sisco are bundled together in the trunk of the escape vehicle and, at close awkward quarters, get to know each other and to develop an undeniable chemistry as they share their love of movies. After a series of events in Miami, Foley, as a wanted fugitive and felon, finds himself in Detroit and Sisco is sent in pursuit. The two -- the fugitive and felon and the law -- meet up and continue in an unlikely but moving way.

The novel is strong on character development as the two lovers learn about each other, about themselves, and about the gulfs between them. Leonard also develops the two individuals independently. He shows Sisco's relationship to her overbearing father and to her earlier romantic interests, which included another felon. Sisco also is dedicated to her career and to moving ahead in the face of men who are reluctant to take her entirely seriously. Foley has had a life of crime in and out of prison. He maintains a relationship with his sister, a former nun, and tries to come across as humane and cultivated.

The book has a host of secondary characters, including Foley's partners in his escape, Sisco's colleagues, and a host of unsavory characters in Detroit. The characterizations are well-individuated but the story has its slow moments. The initial scenes in the prison and in Foley's and Sisco's initial meeting are slower-paced than much of Leonard but well done. I found some of the scenes in Miami slow-going but the book and the writing pick up markedly in the second half of the work with the Detroit setting. Leonard's dialogue in the Detroit scenes becomes snappy and sharp and the criminal characters are menacing indeed. There are effective scenes of Detroit life, including the world of boxing. But the most moving part of the book is the continuation of the doomed love affair and of its affect on the two protagonists. The book features passionate, and convincing feelings between Sisco and Foley before the inevitable unraveling as the parties to the relationship return to pursue their own conflicting ways of life.


"Out of Sight" showed me a facet of Leonard I hadn't seen before. The book was made into a film directed by Steven Soderbergh, and Leonard brought back the character of Jack Foley in his less-successful 2009 novel, "Road Dogs". The book deserves its inclusion in the LOA volume. I enjoyed reading this tough-minded yet romantic portrayal of a difficult love.

Robin Friedman