Customer Reviews

A Stone For Danny Fisher

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Harold Robbins, as he became more successful, mastered the art of the pulp fiction stereotype and much of his later work was pure trash. But his initial novels demonstrated what talent the man had, and are as different from his later trash as cheese from chalk. A Stone For Danny Fisher is his best book ever in my opinion : had he never written another book, this alone would have made him an author to remember.

Set in Depression era New York (Robbins himself was born and raised in Brooklyn, though in vastly better circumstances), this is a coming of age story with a difference. Danny Fisher narrates his own story in the first person, starting with a short, stark depiction of his family meeting at a pre-arranged place and then cutting to flashback mode to explain why. He tells of a Jewish kid growing up in the gritty streets of hard-bitten Brooklyn, battling anti-Semitic abuse, using boxing as a way of escaping the economic fates closing in on his family. No punches are pulled as we experience with Danny the world of organised crime, first as victim, then as onlooker, finally as willing (even enthusiastic) participant. Danny is an anti-hero here, but rarely a villain, so sympathetically and starkly are his story and dilemmas painted. Reading it the first time as a teenager, this book had me outraged and disillusioned repeatedly as Danny takes his knocks and too often faces rejection, even betrayal. At heart, he is still a little boy and remains so till the bitter-sweet ending, where the flashback ends and we rejoin the opening scene.

A high quality book, a story that grips the heart, a sparse writing style that wastes no words, a glimpse at the best and worst of human life. Highly recommended.

I recently reread this book, one of my favorites at thirteen, and it's still tender, informative, sad, nostalgic, violent, grandiose, nerve-wracking, forgiving, and great. It's a coming-of-age story set in Depression-era New York, somewhat autobiographical, and vividly drawn and atmospheric. Some of the descriptions are heartbreaking. The enormously popular author Robbins, who died last year, was simultaneously rejected by book critics and loved by millions of readers -- for more than three decades -- much like Krantz, Susann, et.al. He was a master of his genre: low-to-middle-brow page-turners containing the tried-and-true best-seller ingredients of his time: love, lust, money, dangerous men, glamorous, sensual, and/or "fallen" women, "interesting"-- vividly exotic, dangerous, or historical -- settings, and memorable "characters"... Robbins reached much higher in this book, and it's more than just formula. The dialogue rings true, there's a satisfying use of interior monologue, and his eye for details is sharp. It's a story with a lot of heart, and remains well worth reading.

It is strange when I say this because I read alot. I read classics like war and peace,les miserables, moby dick and such but when friends ask me what is my favorite i tell them A stone for Danny Fisher.
First of all harold robbins wrote trash novels. his first 3 were classics.Comprared to what he wrote later on. When he died the new york times said in his obiturary that A stone for Danny Fisher deserves a paragraph in this mans life in literary history.
As a kid i related to the charaters and i felt for them i never did that when i read as a kid. i even tear up when i read the epilouge because he hits it dead on . for i am a man of ordinary hopes and ordinary dreams, i too cursed at the umpire for a bad call , im the guy on the boat with george washington, im the guy smoking the ciggarette at the subway platform. no songs will be written about me.
That is what life is all about in my view and he harold robbins nailed it.
i even buy this book used to send to friends so they could read it.
well whoever reads it enjoy.

I read this book when I was 14 and from the moment I started at page one, I couldn't put it down. (The only other book that did that to me was Exodus.) I remember I was sleeping at my Aunt and Uncles house over the weekend. I stayed up all that night and all into the next morning reading. I walked home and I was still reading... It made me a lover of reading and to this day I am still reading. I am now 46. I am trying to find this book to purchase so I can read it again, and hopefully my children will enjoy it too. I can't say why I loved this book so much only that it made me realize how precious life is and that people should live each moment like it's their last... I too am Jewish and could relate to the whole relationship between Danny and his girlfriend; non-Jew. You're probably wondering how a 14 year old could feel that way but if you grew up in a household like mine where you had to "stick to your own kind", believe me, I could relate. But it was so much more than that. Just the life Danny led, what he went through and how he ended up. Anyway, hopefully I will be able to find it so I can enjoy all over again.

"A Stone for Dany Fisher" was the first Non-kid book I ever read. My father gave it to me when I was 16. That was 22 years ago and I just found the book. I can't wait to read it again! It has a plot to keep you interested and far from bored. It's spicy and bold, but told of important life lessons. It is defenitely one to read.

In 1986 when I lived in Chicago I took a short story writing course with Asa Baber through Northwestern's night school. Baber was an author (Tranquility Base, Land of a Million Elephants) and wrote the "Men" column for Playboy. Around fifteen students, and every last mother one of them a miserable writer, including yours truly, to judge from my aggregate published output to date of nothing. One night one of the smarmy young pretend writers in the class was making a dismissive reference to Harold Robbins, comparing him unfavorably to -- I don't remember, some writerly ideal like Mailer or Updike or the like, accompanied by the nodding agreement of the class. I had never read a Harold Robbins novel, but I spoke up, probably rather more sharply than I should have, to note that Harold Robbins wrote books that attracted the attention of real editors and were read by millions of real readers, many of whom may not have had the elevated tastes of these kids, but who were not being fooled into reading something they didn't enjoy. That shut 'em up.

In the intervening two-and-a-half decades, I still hadn't read a Harold Robbins novel. I don't know how I came across A Stone for Danny Fisher, but I think I read somewhere that as Robbins's first novel (published in 1951), it had about it some of the grit and drive that may have dissipated somewhat in his later potboilers (The Betsy, Heat of Passion, The Carpetbaggers). I am very glad I picked it up.

The cover tells some of the story: A hot mid-twentieth-century chick with one of those great mid-twentieth-century hot-chick hairdos and really hot mid-twentieth-century hot-chick foundational undergarments, a fleabag room, and boxing. What's not to like?

The book has all these things, but quite a bit more. It is about a boy growing up in Brooklyn during the Depression. He suffers from economic deprivation, limited prospects, and the curse of anti-Semitism. He overcomes them to a point, but the logic of the life he has chosen soon drives him to become a very different kind of person. He struggles with the demands of his new life, which is in sharp contrast to the joy he takes in the woman he loves.

If you're thinking about picking this up, let me be clear about a couple of things. First, this is a story you've heard before. As you read, you will find yourself predicting what happens next, and you will frequently be correct. To adopt the boxing metaphor, Robbins telegraphs his punches.

Second, this is not sophisticated writing. It is sometimes childishly simple. Lots of adverbs. (Most good writers hate adverbs -- I almost said "unanimously" hate adverbs.) I'm flipping through the book right now, let's see . . . you'll find sentences like: "Slowly the beating of her heart quieted." "Her hand reached up wonderingly and touched her hair." "The dark rolled around me in gentle swirling clouds."

But -- and this must have been what I was sensing in 1986 -- there is something to hold your attention on every page. These simple and sometimes corny words tell the reader what is happening. They don't tell you how smart the author is, they don't surprise you with pointless plot devices, they just set forth the dramatic facts of the life of a young man the reader comes to care about. It's a story. Robbins doesn't apologize for it or dress it up. He just flat tells it.

Folks, that's writing.

From the moment I picked up the book until the end, I couldn't put it down. It honestly felt like I was growing with the character. It truely teaches one everything about life, love, truth, honesty and dedication. I would recommend this book to anyone!

I read this book when I was a teenager and I still remember the story 15 years later. Its one of those novels that make a lasting impact on you.

I have raved, and raved about this book, and found that I want to read it yet once again. The problem is, it's out of print. Would someone out there be willing to sell me your copy? If so please contact me at: drbilllambert@uswest.net in Phx. Az. Thanks so much..:-)

Remeber that old Sting song "If You Love Someone Set Them Free"? Danny Fisher starts out a teenage Jewish kid whose gym teacher (an ex-pug) sees ring potential in him. His parents can't stand the idea, they can't stand his new girlfriend (she isn't Jewish)--all in all, they can't stand the idea of untying the apron strings. So they disown him, he leaves home and takes up a boxing career. Boxing being what it was pre-WWII, he also gets mixed up with the rackets. It's a bit of a duh where that can lead a guy. And all because his folks couldn't untie the freakin' strings!