David Mamet talks about his new book 'Chicago,' all about gangsters and Tribune reporters
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - "The question is, then," Mike said, "what is evil?"
"Well, that is decided," Doyle said, "by the fellow holding the gun."
David Mamet wrote those words, the most recent of thousands he has memorably placed into the mouths of hundreds of characters of his own creation.
The two men above are some of the colorful folks in his new novel, "Chicago," a Prohibition-era tale of murder and mystery, gangsters, love, friendship and betrayal. It "stars" two hard-boiled reporters for the Chicago Tribune and is peppered, as is all of Mamet's work, with hustling, humor and heartbreak. And, of course, that distinctively fast, clever, edgy dialogue that has come to be known as Mamet Speak.
Now, Mamet speaks, saying, "I have thought about how my life should end. It's four o'clock in the morning. I'm drinking bourbon, smoking Camels and playing the piano in a Chicago whorehouse. That would be heaven."
The prolific, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Oscar-nominated screenwriter-director and writer of many books is in Santa Monica, Calif., a place that, for one coming in from snow-clogged, icy Chicago, is a passable rendering of heaven - sun shining bright and temperatures in the 70s.
He is inside a multilevel townhouse that functions as an office that he comes to five or six days a week. There are guitars on the floor, a piano in the corner, art on the walls, comfortable furniture and, among many talismans of Chicago (old postcards, old button pins),
