''Heat'' is a 1985 novel by

William Goldman William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays '' ...

about a soldier of fortune in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Plot

The novel is about a man named Nick Escalante, nicknamed "the Mex" by his friends, who hires himself out in Las Vegas not as a mercenary or bodyguard but as a service listed in the

Yellow Pages The yellow pages are telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for ...

directory under "Chaperone." He eschews firearms but is particularly lethal with sharp objects. Escalante has one ambition, which is to save up enough money so that he can move to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, Italy, for the rest of his life. The trouble is, Nick is a compulsive gambler. When he comes into a large sum of money after coming to the aid of a woman friend who has been physically abused in a Vegas hotel suite by DeMarco, an arrogant mobster, Nick ends up losing it at the blackjack tables. He is hired by a meek millionaire named Cyrus Kinnick on the pretense of needing a bodyguard, but in actuality the small, modest man seeks lessons in how to be a tougher individual who can properly defend himself.

Background

Goldman says he began the novel with "that main character and I had that opening sequence and I'd been in Vegas a lot and it's such a terrible place to be a compulsive gambler and try to earn a living there."

Reception

According to Bruce Cook in ''Chicago Tribune'', the quality of Goldman's novels had declined once he started writing screenplays. Reviewing ''Heat'' he said "they're not quite as good in a very peculiar way. First of all, they are written rather casually, as though shot from the hip right onto the page. Just about all of them would have benefitted from another trip through the typewriter--in about the same way that most screenplays would. They are somewhat skeletal in form, reduced to dialogue, abbreviated narrative and a twitchy interior monologue that reads like some kind of high-speed Socratic Q & A...., they seem like screenplays written for the book market." Cook argued ''Heat'' was "constructed as a screenplay is, in sequences rather than real chapters. In fact, there is a wonderful bit of misdirection, an illusion created, in the novel's first two sequences that is pure movie magic." Cook did say that while the book may "not be literature, may not even be a novel properly speaking, but as entertainment it is cotton candy all the way." The ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' said "While the book is propelled by action and snappy dialogue, it is the way Goldman reveals his characters, slowly adding dimension to their personalities, that makes Heat a superior novel. "

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and '' Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained cri ...

in the ''New York Times'' wrote "Goldman is a master storyteller and has done a master's trick. He has made us wish for ourselves the same thing the protagonist wishes for himself. In ''Heat'' it is this: to live forever in the safe and magic world he has created – the world of Friendly Hookers; of Roxy, the waitress of table 75; of honorable gangsters; wealthy benefactors; sneering toughs whose faces soon will be ground in the dirt, and interesting friends who will be true to us till death." The book became a best seller.

Adaptations

* ''

Heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is ...

'' (1986), film directed by

Dick Richards Dick Richards (born 1936) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Known as a storyteller and an “actor’s director”, Richards worked with Robert Mitchum, Gene Hackman, Martin Sheen, Blythe Danner, Catherine Deneuve, Al ...

and

Jerry Jameson Jerry Jameson (born November 26, 1934) is an American television and film director, editor and producer. Biography Highly prolific, he began career in 1964 as an editor on the episode " The Song Festers" of ''The Andy Griffith Show'', soon m ...

* '' Wild Card'' (2015), film directed by

Simon West Simon Alexander West (born 1961) is an English film director and producer. He has primarily worked in the action genre, most notably as the director of the films ''Con Air'', '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'', '' The Mechanic'', and '' The Expenda ...

References

*Egan, Sean, ''William Goldman: The Reluctant Storyteller'', Bear Manor Media 2014 {{William Goldman 1985 American novels Novels by William Goldman Novels set in the Las Vegas Valley American novels adapted into films Warner Books books