Customer Reviews

Citizen Sidel

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Finding a new Author is good, finding an Author that has written several dozen books that extend the new find is fantastic. The first work I read by Mr. Jerome Charyn was, "The Black Swan". That particular work was the second volume of his memoirs documenting his youth in the Bronx, and it was great reading. "Citizen Sidel", is a work of fiction that takes place around the Democratic Convention and its aftermath in New York City. The book is irreverent, has razor sharp rapid-fire dialogue, and gives no quarter to any of the topics it harpoons.

Any scandal that has taken place in the political arena is tame in comparison to the variety of activities, up to and including Capital Crimes that this Presidential run includes. There is a hitter stalking one of the Burroughs by the name of Tolstoy. A notorious Rumanian octogenarian is living in luxury in Virginia, as a guest on one of the competing US Agencies, and these are only two of several dozen outrageous characters. A 12 year old who is a speech script doctor, a potential First Lady who loathes her Daughter, as the latter is more popular.

Add to the individuals a FBI that makes Hoover's version seem like a child's game, and then toss in The CIA, The Secret Service, New York City's Finest, Gangs, and self-proclaimed super-heroes, and you begin to get an idea of this tale. While it is said that all humor contains some truth, this book is a great deal of fun to read. Jerome Charyn is a very talented writer with an insightful savage wit. Enjoy!

Charyn's idiosyncratic adventure crosses the headlong rush of a classic noir thriller with the earnest fantasy of a 12 year old kid. The result is delightful, if you're ready to come out and play, but no doubt frustrating for fans of gritty realism. If you enjoyed Martin Amis' Night Train or Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, you should try the Sidel books.

What are we to make of a New York City mayor who packs a Glock, wrestles corrupt cops and crooked politicians at the same time he is running as second banana in a presidential campaign? You get Issac Sidel, a.k.a. the Big Guy, a.k.a. the Citizen, and the funhouse world created by Jerome Charyn, once of the Bronx, now of Paris.

"Citizen Sidel" is a small book -- less than 220 pages -- but Sidel's a loose cannon who runs everywhere except off the page. He barely keeps ahead of the other characters, who are equally bizarre: the 12-year-old daughter of his running mate, the love of his life who's in bed with the president, and the son of a police officer, once thought dead, who resurrects himself as the protector of an inner-city neighborhood, accompanied by a large rat named Raskolnikov. Sidel himself is a thoroughbred on amphetimines, barely keeping ahead of those who want to see his campaign derailed. He moves in a shadow world of plots and counter-plots that may or may not have a tenuous link in reality.

A lot of "Citizen Sidel" has that feeling of unrealism. Watch Sidel lose a fistfight against a political operative, then give his acceptance speech on national television, see him fly over the streets of New York, looking for a 12-year-old tagger, see him campaign in America's heartland, one voter at a time, without anyone from the media nearby. He tries to rescue a World War II Romanian dictator from an asylum and his running mate's daughter from kidnappers and accuses nearly everybody of secretly working for someone else.

In the end, "Citizen Sidel" reads like an art house movie that seems profound until you walk out of the theater and try to make sense of it.

New York City's Madison Square Garden is hosting the Democratic Party's National Convention. J. Michael Storm, who ended the worst strike in the history of baseball, is going to be nominated as the party's presidential candidate. The city's mayor, Isaac Sidel, has been selected as Storm's running mate in order to counterbalance the scandals of the top half of the ticket.

While the world focuses on J. Michael, Isaac has a city to run and a murder to investigate. A father has apparently killed his son. Both were city cops. Isaac investigates and soon finds himself confronting a precinct captain, backed by powerful friends, who delivers murder upon demand. As he tries to keep his city clean, The Big Guy (Isaac) faces off against a myriad of foes who want him dead.

Jerome Charyn must be the reincarnation of Lewis Carroll and Sidel is Alice as no one paints New York City weirder and more interesting than this author does. The story line of the tenth Sidel tale still keeps a strange freshness that continues to show the unending imagination of the author. CITIZEN SIDEL is not for everyone. However, anyone who relishes an off beat political thriller mixed in with a well-designed police procedural that comes from inside the looking glass will enjoy this novel and series.

Harriet Klausner

New York City's Madison Square Garden is hosting the Democratic Party's National Convention. J. Michael Storm, who ended the worst strike in the history of baseball, is going to be nominated as the party's presidential candidate. The city's mayor, Isaac Sidel, has been selected as Storm's running mate in order to counterbalance the scandals of the top half of the ticket.

While the world focuses on J. Michael, Isaac has a city to run and a murder to investigate. A father has apparently killed his son. Both were city cops. Isaac investigates and soon finds himself confronting a precinct captain, backed by powerful friends, who delivers murder upon demand. As he tries to keep his city clean, The Big Guy (Isaac) faces off against a myriad of foes who want him dead.

Jerome Charyn must be the reincarnation of Lewis Carroll and Sidel is Alice as no one paints New York City weirder and more interesting than this author does. The story line of the tenth Sidel tale still keeps a strange freshness that continues to show the unending imagination of the author. CITIZEN SIDEL is not for everyone. However, anyone who relishes an off beat political thriller mixed in with a well-designed police procedural that comes from inside the looking glass will enjoy this novel and series.

Harriet Klausner