An exclusive lost scene from Elmore Leonard’s ‘Swag’

Who knew that a scene was chopped out of Elmore Leonard’s 1976 novel “Swag”?

It came as a surprise to Gregg Sutter and the editors at the Library of America, who found it in the manuscript when they were putting together their new Elmore Leonard collection, “Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1970s.” The library volume contains “Fifty-Two Pickup” (1974), “Swag” (1976), “Unknown Man No. 89” (1977) and “The Switch” (1978, the basis of the new film “Life of Crime”). This is Leonard writing about splashy 1970s Detroit, full of big cars, bloated egos and its share – at least in fiction – of grifters and criminals.

The restored scene in “Swag” puts its two main characters, car dealer Frank Ryan and car thief Stick, together before Frank comes up with his 10 Rules for Success and Happiness (see Timothy Olyphant reading that passage). Ryan and Stick don’t know each other well, and this never-before-published scene shows how the balance of power between them is one thing on the surface but below that, something else.

Read the exclusive excerpt below:

They had three more rounds at the Bouzouki.

Frank said, “You don’t mind my saying, that’s a pretty terrible looking shirt you got on.”

“After six days you become attached to it,” Stick said.

“No, I mean it’s pretty terrible looking any time. The other night you took the car, it was the first thing I noticed.”

“I got it in Pompano Beach, Florida. You won’t believe it, at a five and ten.”

“I believe it,” Frank said. “Listen, I was thinking, we could go out get something to eat, talk some more. Maybe stop some place and get you a new shirt.”

Stick looked down at the shirt, holding the front of it away from his body. “I washed it out a couple of times.”

“It’s not that so much,” Frank said. “It’s just I think there’s a certain impression we should give. Look a little bit more like businessmen. You know what I mean?”

“You mean if we work together then I got to let you dress me?” Stick said. “What else do I have to do?”

“Look,” Frank said, “you want to look like a Oklahoma Hawaiian then wear the shirt.”

“I don’t need anybody buying me clothes is what I’m saying. I got all the clothes I want.”

“You want another drink?”

“I don’t need anybody buying me drinks either.”

“Why don’t you relax, take it easy.”

“I’m relaxed. I’m fine.”

“Maybe you’ve had enough,” Frank said. “How many you had, five? Maybe you drink any more you’ll get sick.”

Stick shook his head. He said very slowly, “Jesus Christ, listen to him, sitting there drinking that Greek piss.”

Frank gave Stick a little grin, showing him he wasn’t mad or offended. He said, “I don’t know what it is about country boys they think they can out-drink everybody.”

“That’s been your experience, uh?”

“More than once,” Frank said, with a nice pleasant expression on his face. “I’ll tell you about a time, I was coming back from L.A. I stopped in a place called Mineral Springs, Colorado, have a beer and something to eat. I got talking to this guy wearing a big cowboy hat and boots. Turned out he was the Chevrolet dealer. I told him I’d sold cars in the Motor Capital of the world and was going back to do it some more. We’re shooting the shit, getting along pretty well, and meanwhile started drinking brandy with beer chasers. Finally he asked me if I’d like to stay on, be his sales manager. I said I didn’t know if there’d be enough volume. I asked him what else you sell around here besides pickups? He didn’t care much for that. He says well, sonny, you’d probably quit in a week anyway. I ask him why’s that? He says on account of the altitude. Understand we’re still doing the brandy and beers. I begin to see what’s happening. I buy a round, he buys one. He starts throwing them down faster and I’m thinking, Dumb cowboy asshole, I know a dozen sickly guys who can’t pick up anything heavier than a martini who’d kill you before sundown. Finally he says, he looks at me and says, ‘I ain’t ever drunk with a lowlander yet I didn’t have to put to bed.’”

Stick waited. “Yeah?”

Frank was looking at him the same way the car dealer had probably looked at Frank.

“What’d you say then?”

“I didn’t say anything. I smiled and raised my glass.”

That’s what Stick did. Smiled and raised his glass.

From Elmore Leonard, “Four Novels of the 1970s: ‘Fifty-Two Pickup,’ ‘Swag,’ ‘Unknown Man #23,’ and ‘The Switch,’” edited by Gregg Sutter (The Library of America, 2014). Reprinted by permission.

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