Cocktail [Hardcover]

Heywood Gould (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1984

Brian Flanagan is one of today's culture heroes-a sophisticated journeyman bartender who can seduce a waitress while mixing a perfect martini, and simultaneously regale his patrons with his acerbic view of the world. So why is he unemployed, broke and alone? Brian's odyssey takes him from Manhattan's fashionable East Side celebrity bars to Fire Island hot spots, from Caribbean resorts to the latest Tribeca in-place, always looking for true love or a hustle, whichever comes first, and usually winding up with neither. The action comes fast, and the repartee comes faster, crackling with the bitter wit of a frustrated romantic. As refreshing as an ice cold beer in a dark saloon, as powerful as a kamikaze cocktail on an empty stomach, Cocktail is a colorful caravan of people engaged in a frantic search for happiness, recorded by a cynical observer, Brian Flanagan, who against his better judgment repeatedly enters the fray and takes his place as one of modern fiction's most memorable characters.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 337 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (September 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312146337
• ISBN-13: 978-0312146337
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,774,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn, Heywood Gould got his start as a reporter for the NY Post when it was still known as a "pinko rag." Later he financed years of rejection with the usual colorful jobs-cabdriver, mortician's assistant, industrial floor waxer, bartender and screenwriter. He has written thirteen books and nine screenplays, among them "Boys From Brazil," "Fort Apache, The Bronx," "Cocktail" and "Rolling Thunder." His last novel, "Leading Lady," was a finalist for the 2008 Dashiell Hammett and Foreword Magazine awards for literary excellence in crime writing and a bronze medal winner for the Independent Book Publisher's Award. His new thriller "The Serial Killer's Daughter," has been called"...a high-caliber, redemptive road trip...quick-witted, stylish, and highly entertaining." -Seamus Scanlon for Library Journal

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Cocktail" by H. Gould, November 9, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Miami Beach, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cocktail (Mass Market Paperback)

Although changed for the movie, the original book, "Cocktail" dipped into the near psychotic ravings of a middle aged bartender who had seen one too many last-calls. Each page is riviting with the colorful dramatization unique to Gould. Having been a world traveled bartender for 10 years now, I was amazed and thrilled to see an incredibly accurate insight into the thrilling yet seedy existance of a part-time job gone career. A must read for anyone who has ever looked at a clever, hot-shot bartender and thought that he had it made. Change the names and list this novel under non-fiction. Two thumbs up from bartenders everywhere!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading for anyone into the bar scene., August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Cocktail (Mass Market Paperback)

A former bartender myself, I found the book to be very insightful, and humerous as it followed the life of a career bartender trying to make the most out of his situation. This book gives a very truthful look at the life behind the Neon of the bar.

5.0 out of 5 stars Coughlin's Story, February 13, 2010

By 

C. L. Messina (Columbus, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cocktail (Mass Market Paperback)

I must admit, Cocktail (the movie) is one of my guilty pleasures. I can quote every line and know every bad joke (too many to count). My interest in the movie led me to the book which I just finished last night. It's a quick read (344 pgs) but be warned, its storyline strays from the movie very quickly though both works share the same author. My guess is that Cruise, still hot off Top Gun, was called in and the producers suddenly needed something with less grit and more flash. Flanagan, as played by Cruise, does exist in these pages but only briefly. By the time this book starts up we're hanging with a guy 38, been there, done that, more quips than Oscar Wilde, more bite than a pool of piranhas and too weary to care about any of it. Which is to say we're looking at the story of Coughlin in the movie. A guy who started slinging shots in the mid-sixties, suffered the ranting idealism of the hippies while enjoying the free sex and drug culture that accompanied it. The book feels like a hangover from the party that was the early seventies (the loft scene in Serpico comes to mind) with Flanagan, once the star in the center of it all, counting his days, shots, and lays until someone or something will let us know the 'bar's closed' so he can call it a life.

The main difference between this Flanagan and the movie character, aside from world-weariness and age, is ambition. The book character is that career proletariat Coughlin described in the movie but he knows it and doesn't feel there's any other choice than bite the bullet and play the role his talents destined him to. The only thing he is good at is pouring liquor and running his mouth but he doesn't need an epiphany of any sort to reach that conclusion. His only hope, and a characteristically selfish one at that, is for a rich young girl to come to his rescue, not that he can trust any woman enough to let such a thing happen. He needs dumb luck and he'll be the first to admit he's been blessed with everything except the ability to find a happy ending. Is this the curse of all working-class genius's? Will he be serving rounds to the corpses under the Brooklyn Bridge or will his knightette in a shining limo throw a net over him before it's too late?

Had the movie never been made I never would have heard of this book. Had the book been noticed anyone who walked out of the movie would have demanded a refund and we probably wouldn't have suffered as many bad Tom Cruise tabloid escapades. This book is a hidden gem. Perhaps one day they'll do a tasteful, thoughtful, well-acted remake that it deserved- but where will they find another Bryan Brown to play Flanagan?