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Overview
THE ONLY THING HARDER THAN GETTING INTO THE MOB IS GETTING OUT.
For Anthony Russo, an Atlantic City mobster’s son, the chances of escaping a life of crime are slim. They hinge on his plan to back a washed-up boxer’s comeback bid, and that, in turn, hinges on winning the help of a sexy round card girl who’s gone toe-to-toe with the current champion – in the bedroom…
From the author of Slow Motion Riot comes the gritty story of a young man's attempts to forgo his family's Mafia lifestyle. Growing up in the Atlantic City mob has left its mark on Anthony Russo. He wants to go legit, but sometimes the lawful world can prove to be just as dirty. And someone else's murder may be the only way to prevent his own.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
A young man's struggle to break free of his gangster family holds center stage in Blauner's second novel, a competent but derivative tale that's no match for his Edgar-winning Slow Motion Riot. The author again offers a gritty portrait of lowlifes, in this case an Atlantic City crew riven by federal harassment, falling income and paranoia. But the wish of Anthony Russo, adopted son of underboss Vincent Russo, to go straight won't surprise those who recall Michael Corleone in The Godfather; nor will Anthony's slow realization that the sins of the father, including blood lust, are inherited by the son. That the hero's love interest is an ex-whore with a heart of gold also doesn't earn points for originality. Even so, Anthony's scheme to make his own way by managing an aging boxer on the comeback trail brings readers deep into the dirty world of prizefighting, with Blauner tracing the boxer's battered nobility with as much sensitivity as he does Anthony's love/hate toward the man who raised him. Forgetting that less can be more, though, the author implicates Vincent Russo in the death of Anthony's natural father, a complication as distracting as the narration's choppy alternation between first and third person. Still, this isn't bad for a sophomore slump. (Sept.)Library Journal
"Take a Chance, Take a Chance" urges a flashing neon sign in Atlantic City. Anthony Russo does take chances: he starts a construction business in the midst of a recession and ignores his minor, under-boss stepfather's persistent request that he ingratiate himself with the local Mafia. Desperate to provide for his growing family without having to work for or borrow more from the "family," Anthony decides to sponsor a has-been boxer attempting to make a comeback. Rosemary, a single mother working as a wrestler in a bar, among other degrading jobs, thinks that helping Anthony is her chance to get the funds for a new life in Seattle. Although nothing goes right from the start, Anthony perseveres to an ironic freedom when he is arrested for murder. This bleak, violent novel should receive as much reader and critical attention as did Blauner's Slow Motion Riot, a 1992 Edgar Allen Poe Award winner LJ 5/1/91.-V. Louise Saylor, Eastern Washington Univ. Lib., CheneyBook Details
Published
April 5, 2011
Publisher
Titan
Pages
320
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780857683113