Bandbox (Harvest Book) [Paperback]

Thomas Mallon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvest Book | Publication Date: January 10, 2005

"Cuddles Houlihan got clipped by the vodka bottle as it exited the pneumatic tube. . . ." With that bottle we enter Bandbox, a hugely successful magazine of the 1920s, run by bombastic Jehoshaphat "Joe" Harris. Harris's most ambitious protégé ("the bastard son he never had") has just defected to run the competition, plunging Bandbox into a newsstand death struggle. The magazine's fight for survival will soon involve a sabotaged fiction contest, the vice squad, a subscriber's kidnapping, and a film-actress cover subject who makes the heroines of Chicago look like the girls next door. While Harris and his magazine careen from comic crisis to make-or-break calamity, the reader races from skyscraper to speakeasy.

Thomas Mallon has given us a madcap romp of a book that brilliantly portrays Manhattan in the gaudiest American decade of them all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A new, gleeful exuberance infuses Mallon's latest novel, in which he turns his talent for fastidious historical detail (Dewey Defeats Truman, etc.) to the elaboration of a comedy of errors set in Manhattan during the 1920s. Bandbox is the name of a successful monthly magazine for men, the first and best of its kind until the recent defection of its star editor, Jimmy Gordon, to establish the rival Cutaway. The narrative centers on the cutthroat competition between the two magazines, a suspenseful battle in which two Bandbox editors secretly defect to the other magazine, providing inside information that allows Jimmy to scoop his old boss and win the ratings game. The narrative is a tad slow getting started, since Mallon must introduce each name on the masthead and succinctly describe their various duties. All his characters are colorful and fully dimensional, however, especially Bandbox's aging editor-in-chief, Jehoshaphat (variously Joe, or Phat) Harris, who seems closely modeled on the legendary Harold Ross of the New Yorker. In addition to the magazine staff, there's a Hollywood star chosen to be the subject of a cover story. She's a foul-mouthed nymphomaniac called Rosemary La Roche, who trails chaos in her wake. Mallon adroitly establishes the atmosphere of the Jazz Age, dropping such names as Al Jolson, Leopold and Loeb, President Coolidge, George M. Cohan and the crime boss Arnold Rothstein. The latter is a pivotal character, because when his goons kidnap a kid from Indiana who has come to New York because he idolizes Bandbox, the plot acquires the elements of a thriller. Prohibition, police corruption, a court trial, in-house intrigue, the narcotics trade, animal rights, two gentle romances and several surprise revelations propel the plot, not to mention one of the best features Mallon's ability to convey the deadline-obsessed mentality of a monthly magazine. Mallon has never before employed his wit and humor to such good effect; he writes with comic brio, indulging in clever repartee and nimble farce. To quote the closing sentence: "What do we do for an encore?"
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The New Yorker

Mallon's fizzy new novel is set at a men's magazine during the Jazz Age—and a raging newsstand war. The aging but irrepressible Jehoshaphat Harris has made Bandbox into a roaring success, but now his right-hand man has left to start a rival magazine and the future of Harris's venture is in jeopardy. As photo shoots go awry, profile subjects go berserk, and writers go on benders—some things don't change—the novel, like its main character, never lets the energy flag. Mallon, in his other books, has gravitated toward previous eras out of an affinity for something like reticence. "Bandbox," then, is a real departure: antic, stylized, and up-tempo. The dialogue has a Kaufman-and-Hart crackle, and the story boasts more lotharios, floozies, mobsters, and wised-up dames than an M-G-M double feature.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (January 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156029979
• ISBN-13: 978-0156029971
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,019,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chase your blues away, January 14, 2004

By 

Candace "thepageturner" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bandbox: A Novel (Hardcover)

What dizzy fun! Thomas Mallon takes his usual historic care with a period, but lets the 1920s fizz and roar with humor and spot-on observations. Bandbox (as in "he looks just like he stepped out of a . . .") is a fashion magazine for men. Only recently B'box, as the press calls it, was a fading rag for the lavender crowd, but then editor Jehosephat Harris (known as Joe or 'Phat) added top fiction, adventure, crime writing and romantic tips for single men and this new style mag has turned the New York magazine scene on its ear. Joe Harris was at the top of the world until his second-in-command was lured away by Conde Nast to start rival men's magazine Cutaway. Jimmy Gordon is now trying anything he can to ruin Bandbox, and it looks like he's doing a good job.

The Bandbox staff is a combination of the ambitious (who may be spying for Gordon), the disillusioned, the creative, the artistic, and those on the wagon, and those off the wagon. The women on staff, reveling in the opportunities the new decade has offered them, are probably the most competent, but even they are as wacky as all get out There's a lot of drinking, making payoffs to cops, avoiding gangsters, writing snappy prose, and trading quips. Bandbox must be saved, but with every strategy backfiring in their faces, it looks as though our beloved staffers may be seeking jobs at places like Catholic World before long.

Mallon builds plenty of momentum and enough suspense to keep you guessing at the fate of the magazine and its dedicated staff up until the very end. The unforced dialogue has the true ring of the 20's and is fun to follow. The female characters especially are believable and fun, filled with the heady excitement from the new freedom women enjoyed after the first World War. Some of the male characters take longer to gel and it is necessary to keep checking back to see who they are.

This is frisky, charming book where the madcap 20s roar with fun. As silent movie star Marion Davies later observed with a sigh, "What times we had."-----Candace Siegle

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cream puff, March 1, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bandbox: A Novel (Hardcover)

A truly delightful read. Fast-paced, charmingly populated, romantic as all get out, and very, very funny. The real question is: how will they possibly come up with a collection of actors and actresses this vivid and this funny when they inevitably make the film?

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A clever page-turner with memorable characters, May 28, 2004

By 

Daniel Friedman "dfja17" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bandbox: A Novel (Hardcover)

Bandbox is one of those novels that reinforces my belief that I was born about 50 years too late. It captures the New York of the Roaring 20's and the helter skelter world of magazine publishing in a way that is both funny and engrossing. Thomas Mallon may not be writing on a par with Fitzgerald or others original to the period (who can?) but he is definitely at the top of his game and it's no shame to be the Triple-A champ.

The plot fits into several genre, the most prominent being a madcap screwball and the other being somewhat of a minor mystery - will the competition succeed in shutting down Bandbox? Mallon makes deft use of every character, even though there are easily more than a dozen to keep track of, and each fits very, very neatly into the plot. That's incredibly hard to pull off and if the book wobbles a little bit in some sections, it makes up for it in others.

Mallon captures the romance of the city and the era vividly, from the socio-political events to the popular culture to the love affair that writers had and continue to have with New York. Even though we know via history's events what's coming around the corner for these characters, we care about them enough to want them to avoid the hard times and root for them against the "bad guys".

Jehosaphat "Joe" Harris is the editor of Bandbox and he seems like a combination of Harvey Weinstein and Boss Tweed. He's fighting to save his magazine from the upstart Cutaway, edited by his onetime protege Jimmy Gordon. Jimmy, who will stop at nothing to bury Bandbox, appears to have the upper hand. The suspense as to who will emerge victorious is an excellent attention-grabber as situations and circumstances get more and more out of control.

The funny thing about the book is that some of the characters and situations are cliches of the 20's, but we're so used to them they don't feel like cliches. Mallon manipulates our perceptions and stereotypes to do his job for him, which is a very clever move. It's also interesting that in reading it I couldn't help but think of what kind of film it would make. Some of the parts are ridiculously easy to cast in the imagination. Alec Baldwin, for example, is the epitome of Jimmy Gordon.

One flaw, and I've noticed this in other novels that are similar to this one, is that there is so much going on in some instances the author foreshadows what's coming a little too blatantly which takes some of the fun away from the big moments when they do occur. This is a minor criticism - it's like watching a movie when you've seen all the cliches and you know one is coming. It's probably not going to detract from the overall experience but you remember it for not being on the same level as the rest of the material.

The book reads very smoothly - probably a good two days at most - and leaves you wanting more. Thomas Mallon is going on my list of authors whose other work I am interested in reading.