Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Living... in Miami, but he travels a lot for his work as a loan shark.
Visiting... Los Angeles. Chili came there to collect from the widow of a Miami dry-cleaner named Leo Devoe who owed $300K to “Bones" Barboni, a Mafia boss. “Bones” heard she has the money because she received an insurance settlement after Leo’s plane crashed. But when Chili comes to collect the money, he finds out that Leo is alive and partying in Las Vegas – apparently quite happy that he scammed the airline out of $300K.
Profession... loan shark. It’s not an easy job; he’s been shot at three times before. But Chili likes his other assignment in Hollywood – collecting money from Harry Zimm, a producer of horror films, including “The Slime People.” Chili is a huge movie buff, and they hit it off.
Relationship Status... attracted to Harry's girlfriend, an actress named Karen. Chili thinks Karen can do better than Harry and the movies he stars her in – wearing a tight tank top and sky-inch heels, screaming on cue. Of course, Chili thinks she deserves someone like him.
Challenge... trying to get into the movie business. When he went to collect the money from Harry, Chili told him about a movie idea he has that is based on his experience with Leo. The good news is that the idea has caught the interest of big time actor Martin Weir. But the bad news is that gangsters are trying to get in on Chili’s action. The movie business is harder than Chili thought it would be. As he says, “I'm gonna have to go back to loan-sharking just to take a rest.”
Personality... chatty, cocky, and over-the-top. Chili also thinks he’s a tough guy. As he says, "If you were to cast me in a movie, I could see myself in the parts that Robert De Niro plays. Or maybe even, an Al Pacino movie."
Get to Know him in...
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A mobster travels to Hollywood to collect a debt and discovers that the movie business is much the same as his current job.
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“A Hollywood hit….Taut, inimitable prose and characters who could have only sprung from the mind of Elmore Leonard.” —Detroit News The Chicago Tribune has dubbed Elmore Leonard, “the coolest, hottest writer in America.” In the same league as the legendary great ones—John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain—the “King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times) demonstrates his remarkable mastery with Get Shorty, one of the most adored of his forty-plus novels. The basis of the hit movie starring John Travolta and Danny DeVito, Get Shorty chronicles the over-the-top, sometimes violent Hollywood misadventures of a Florida mob loan shark who chases a deadbeat client all the way to Tinseltown and decides to stick around and make movies. Get Shorty’s shylock protagonist, Chili Palmer, is a truly inspired creation—as memorable as another unforgettable Leonard hero, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified—and readers will relish his moves and countermoves in this electrifying, funny, bullet train-paced winner from “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!” (New York Times Book Review)
