Customer Reviews

The Delivery Man: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a gritty and realistic novel about what it must be like to be young and hooked on the "easy" money of the Vegas sex worker's world of young girls and their male pimp partners. The main character has moved into a more legitimate world of education, art and business, classy future wife, etc., but is pulled into the shallow lifestyle of some of his previous high school girlfriends and friends, to temporarily get by and have somewhere to hang out. But like people who get hooked on drugs, he is pulled into this world gradually, fighting it, and yet it is always clear that he will be unable to pull out of his descent into this hellish world. The sex and drugs are never glamorized. It is clear that they all fall gradually into the pit and then can't get out because the money is good, their lives are clouded by drugs and alcohol and it is the world that they are given.

It would have been a better book if we were left with any hope for any of the characters. Perhaps he's telling us it's like having hope for heroin addicts. Once addicted, it's pretty hard to get out.

The book is pretty compelling, it moved well, had interesting characters and painted a realistic world. In the end, it was a bit too lugubrious for me.

Just as Chase, twenty-five year old stymied artist and now teacher at a Las Vegas high school, tells his class, "None of you are going anywhere," so is the case with this book. With his childhood friends, Michele, a sultry Latino, and rich kid Bailey, trying to run a prostitution service out a Las Vegas hotel, even involving high school girls, one would expect an edgy, exotic novel. Or perhaps a highly thoughtful examination of Las Vegas-like culture.

The book has a matter-of-factness feel throughout. Nothing is important. Chase's artistic trials and his failing relationship with his black, MBA girlfriend are not compelling. A high school kid starts a fight with Chase and gets him fired. That barely gets a rise. It the characters don't care, why should the reader.

The book does not flow well; it is more an assemblage of scenes. It is not gritty reality as some would have it. It's more formula than anything. Las Vegas sex - wow - and teenagers, too. The characters are bored and boring.

From the beginning this book grips you as you enter a world that is difficult to understand, but you cannot ignore. As Chase delves deeper into sex, drugs, easy money, he gives up all that is worthwhile, including his achieving girlfriend Julia, and his ambitions as an artist. Though there are no winners, this is a satisfying read, as it shows that bad choices in life lead to tragic consequences. Once I started I could not stop until the end.

Joe McGinnis Jr.'s debut novel follows a trio of childhood friends living fast in metropolitan Las Vegas. Narrator Chase is a young high school art teacher clinging to the last vestiges of respectability while a whirlwind of easy money and fast living lures him from the sidelines. Not surprisingly, in the opening chapters of the novel, Chase loses his day job after a fight with a student. He drifts aimlessly, refusing to officially commit to working for his pals Bailey and Michelle in their hotel suite prostitution operation. Nevertheless, he quickly falls into a role as a delivery man, ferrying around high school drop-out call girls in low-slung skinny jeans.

The world created by McGinnis is full of bright lights, easy money, and the temptation of double crossing your posse before they double cross you. The money available in internet escort prostitution is an irresistible temptation to the young girls in Chase's circle. The young adults in The Delivery Man are an exaggeration of a modern celebrity-obsessed MySpace-centric generation. Suburban kids might not form internet prostitution rings, but they share the same aspirations for a life of luxury and leisure.

This is a book about fallen angels and the pull between childhood habits and the potential for a new life. Chase is frustratingly distant as a narrator, which is representative of his own emotional reservations in life. The story is told as a montage of scenes interspersed with flashbacks to an adolescent tragedy. Author Joe McGinnis Jr. has crafted an unflinchingly gritty tale that captures a slice of modern drug-fueled youth culture.

Captures perfectly a sad emotionally desolate world of Vegas teenagers and 20-somethings who can't see the world outside their own. Fast short book, spare prose, an interesting and, for the most part, likable main character.

What I liked about the book: As Y. Jarrells pointed out in an earlier review, I just can't get certain scenes out of my mind. Days after finishing the book, I'm still reliving them. Plus McGinnis Jr has a real way with words. At certain points, I could actually feel the Vegas sun beating down on the pavement. Finally, I'm a big fan of the grittier non-traditional ending.

What I didn't like about the book: The ending was non-traditional but it also wasn't particularly "strong." I find myself thinking more of scenes from the beginning and middle of the book. The substory with the main character's sister is also a bit of a letdown, since it's a story that we've seen way too many times. Finally, the writing wasn't quite as polished as it could have been. Some of the dialogue was choppy making the plot confusing at times. I almost felt like I needed to read it again (and I hope it's not a slight on my intelligence!)

Finally, I can't review this book without comparing it to Less than Zero which is its closest counterpart. Less than Zero was more obvious in its bleakness. Its world of rich unloved LA characters was more depressing but also less relatable (despite the fact I grew up in the burbs of LA!). Whereas I feel like I've at least met all the characters in The Delivery Man at least once in my life. Of course, none of my acquaintances were 16 year old hookers but therein lays the reason why the book is such a pitch-perfect ode to the whole Vegas scene where the skin trade is so prevalent. However, Less than Zero is the better book by far and I think the reason is because Bret Easton Ellis actually was an LA rich kid who lived the life, whereas McGinnis never did (which is implied by his bio and acknowledgements). I have no doubt that McGinnis based his characters on morally destitute people he knew (similar to my own acquaintances) but there were times when it didn't ring 100% true.

The Delivery Man, a novel by Joe McGiniss, Jr., is an unflinching, hardcore page-turner, about a twenty-something named Chase, who for a host of reasons, namely his own low self-image, finds himself sabotaging a promising career as an artist, and his relationship with his college sweetheart. Instead, Chase has chosen to align himself with some very questionable characters, as a driver/handler of young women in a call-girl ring.

The backdrop - the superficial glitz and glamour of Las Vegas, plays a major role in the novel , readily lending itself to the drugs, sex, violence, greed, deceit, and hopelessness that are so pervasive in these characters' lives. The reader of this novel will actively want to step in, and yank Chase from the slow freefall he is in until realizing that he has willingly trapped himself in this "unredemptive" underworld, and all anyone, including Chase, can do is to watch it play out.

If McGinniss' intention is to make us pause, and to examine some of society's lack of personal responsibility, and apathy toward fellow human beings, then he more than accomplishes his mission with this book. He puts an exclamation point on it! An extremely compelling, masterfully-written novel. I look forward to more to come from this author.

The cover of this book initially caught my eye, there was just something about it...

This book is very raw, raunchy, sexual, disturbing, and extremely engrossing. I couldn't put it down. The characters are all so unlikeable, it really is hard to pick who you're rooting for. Do I feel Chase got what he deserved in the end? Maybe...

Part of me feels bad for Chase, becuase he just can't quit Michelle. It's not that he likes the life he's leading and likes what he's doing, he hates it! He hates being this "delivery man" for Michelle/Bailey. I think the problem is, and this is where I feel sorry for him, is that he just can not leave Michele. She was really the only one that was there for him when Carly died, and has kind of taken her place. For that reason, he is just drawn to her. It's very ironic becuase one of the reason's he feels sorry for her, is part of the game they played years ago when he told her that no one cares about her. And it's true, with all of the other characters, except him. Chase is the ONLY character that actually cares about Michele.

It was a good read. I think the creepiest thing about this book, is that this stuff really goes on. This is a fictional book, but it's sad that it really is a reality.

I really liked this little slice of Vegas. I think McGinniss showed Chase as the most subtle addict in the room, so subtle that I'm not sure anyone, certainly not Chase, knows exactly what he's addicted to. Not the simple stuff, the drugs or the sex. Maybe it's "home." Maybe it's Michele. Maybe the links to his sister. But, just like an addict, he can only stay on the wagon awhile before he starts breaking promises and going backward. For more of my rants and (mostly) raves on books, visit my blog at allthepage.today.com

The book offers an exciting plot based around high level prostitution in Las Vegas. However, you will quickly be disappointed by the extremely slow start and lack of depth to any of the main characters. The novel is dark, depressing and confusing with choppy, simple sentences. You cannot sympathize with any of the characters and most of the motivations for their strange actions leave you asking questions that are never answered. Finally, the ending was abrupt and leaves you wondering why the cover of the book looks the way it does.

First of all, this book is filthy, pulpy, trashy, voyeuristic, morally ambiguous, violent, and sleazy. The characters are ruthless, unscrupulous, sex-addicted, drug popping, money hungry, reprehensible, irresponsible, dangerous and unpredictable. Yet, we love them because they have the two characteristics that make all sin eminently forgivable. They have youth. They have beauty.

And not one thing else matters. Oh yeah, except for the money.

Add in a character who is supposed to be the moral center of the book's universe and you can just see where this is going to go. But getting there with him is half the fun. Like watching Nicholas Cage drink himself to death, we get to see a talented artist who is in love with a beautiful prostitute try unsuccessfully to get past a tragedy in his life. We get to bear witness to the swath of destruction that he hacks across multiple lives by agreeing to be a part of her savage plans to make big money fast. It doesn't matter that his intentions are good, the fact that he can't quit this poisonous girl will be his destruction. That he is supposed to be the moral center means that his downfall will be swift and terrible.

Only at the end do you see a glimmer of hope, of recreation in the name of hate and revenge. He is finally transformed into something else, a monster with an eye for payback, his youth and his beauty gone but maybe a lesson learned and a hint of the coming revenge...but now I'm getting too close to writing a spoiler, so I'd better stop.

The plot is fast and the book isn't a towering force of literature. It is however a provocative read that will get you through a couple of airport stops or a boring vacation back home. It has good twists and insight into a world that we all hear about but that most of us won't ever really know. It promises Nabokov but delivers Tarantino, which isn't so bad.

I will say this though, the book had one scene that I thought was amazing, the insult (read also truth) game! That Chase essentially gets one chance to tell Michelle how he feels about her and what he ACTUALLY tells her...WOW! I almost dropped the book. That kind of honesty will get Joe McGinniss somewhere and soon. The book is shallow, gritty and compelling which begs the question, who do you get to play Chase in the movie? Who do you get to play Bailey, Michelle, Julia and Carly? Personally, I can't wait for one of my friends to read this book so I can have this discussion with them.