Joey Goldman's flying south for the winter. The second-string New York wiseguy just packed up his faithful girlfriend Sandra and took off for Key West -- land of sun, surf and sleaze -- where a small-time hustler in search of a racket can score the big one. If he can find it. Enter Joey's half brother Gino. On the lam from the mob after one of the most royally screwed-up jewel heists in Florida history, Gino's a man in need of a fall guy. Which is where Joey comes in . . .
Suddenly, everyone's after Joey -- including the ruthless Miami don who wants his three million worth of uncut emeralds and who just dispatched his goons to deliver Joey a one-way ticket -- out. Now Joey's where he always wanted to be -- in the big time. All he has to do is find out where the stones are stashed. And for an unikely hero out to make a killing, this could be Paradise . . . if he lives long enough.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
A comedy of Mafia manners as brash and shiny as a sharkskin suit struts its way across these pages. Young mafioso Joey Goldman, the illegitimate son of a New York don, gets fed up with his lot as a goombata gofer and takes his bank-teller girfriend Sandra to Key West, where he's "gonna, like, take over." Sandra lands a new job right away, but Joey is stymied by his first foray out of New York mob territory. Rebuffed by the seamiest of local racketeers, Joey is counseled by retired gunsel Bert "the Shirt" to go native; he falls in love with laid-back Key West, where "the air is the temperature of lips," and takes a job pitching time-shares. All is well until big brother Gino drops in from New York--up to his size-17 neck in trouble with the Miami mob over uncut emeralds and misplaced drugs. Joey's former troubles are back in his face as Gino sets him up; death looms before Joey finally outscams the pros to become a self-made man. The plot line flows like a strong ocean current, and Shames's ( The Big Time ) quirky Key West denizens clash wonderfully with the insulated and seamy lives of the mobsters. Film rights to Lee Rich Productions. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The author of The Hunger for More: Searching for Values in an Age of Greed (Times Bks., 1989) proves that fiction is not his forte in this tale of Joey Goldman, the neglected illegitimate son of a New York Mafia don and a Jewish manicurist who drives to Key West with plans to establish his own criminal fiefdom. Joey substantiates his reputation as a loser by assaying a number of rackets that Cubans, Colombians, and another Mafia family have already cornered. With funds running low, he takes a "legal" job as a barker-shill for a condominium development, but his past soon intrudes in the form of his half-brother, Gino Delgato, who engineered a bungled heist of emeralds from the rival Ponte family. Again involved in the brutal give-and-take of gang hegemony, Joey must take steps to save his brother's life as well as his own. The abundance of four-letter words is no substitute for purposeful dialog, and protagonist Joey is so sordidly pathetic, conventional, and slow-witted, that, by comparison, Paddy Chayefsky's Marty is a hero of Homeric proportions. -Edward Cline, Palo Alto, Cal. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Laurence Shames has been a New York City taxi driver, lounge singer, furniture mover, lifeguard, dishwasher, gym teacher, and shoe salesman. Having failed to distinguish himself in any of those professions, he turned to writing full-time in 1976 and has not done an honest day's work since.
His basic laziness notwithstanding, Shames has published twenty books and hundreds of magazine articles and essays. Best known for his critically acclaimed series of eight Key West novels, he has also authored non-fiction and enjoyed considerable though largely secret success as a collaborator and ghostwriter. Shames has penned four New York Times bestsellers. These have appeared on four different lists, under four different names, none of them his own. This might be a record.
Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1951, to chain-smoking parents of modest means but flamboyant emotions, Shames did not know Philip Roth, Paul Simon, Queen Latifa, Shaquille O'Neal, or any of the other really cool people who have come from his hometown. He graduated summa cum laude from NYU in 1972 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. As a side note, both his alma mater and honorary society have been extraordinarily adept at tracking his many address changes through the decades, in spite of the fact that he's never sent them one red cent, and never will.
It was on an Italian beach in the summer of 1970 that Shames first heard the sacred call of the writer's vocation. Lonely and poor, hungry and thirsty, he'd wandered into a seaside trattoria, where he noticed a couple tucking into a big platter of fritto misto. The man was nothing much to look at but the woman was really beautiful. She was perfectly tan and had a very fine-gauge gold chain looped around her bare tummy. The couple was sharing a liter of white wine; condensation beaded the carafe. Eye contact was made; the couple turned out to be Americans. The man wiped olive oil from his rather sensual lips and introduced himself as a writer. Shames knew in that moment that he would be one too.
He began writing stories and longer things he thought of as novels. He couldn't sell them.
By 1979 he'd somehow become a journalist and was soon publishing in top-shelf magazines like Playboy, Outside, Saturday Review, and Vanity Fair. (This transition entailed some lucky breaks, but is not as vivid a tale as the fritto misto bit, so we'll just sort of gloss over it.) In 1982, Shames was named Ethics columnist of Esquire, and also made a contributing editor to that magazine.
By 1986 he was writing non-fiction books. The critical, if not the commercial, success of these first established Shames' credentials as a collaborator/ghostwriter. His 1991 national bestseller, Boss of Bosses, written with two FBI agents, got him thinking about the Mafia. It also bought him a ticket out of New York and a sweet little house in Key West, where he finally got back to Plan A: writing novels. Given his then-current preoccupations, the novels naturally featured palm trees, high humidity, dogs in sunglasses, and New York mobsters blundering through a town where people were too laid back to be afraid of them. But this part of the story is best told with reference to the books themselves, so please stick around and explore them.
HAVING LIVED in Florida all my life, the added spice of this novel being set right down the road (well a long road, I-95, at that) from me, compelled me to go out on a limb and call this one of the best examples of comedy-mystery-mob novels ever written. Joey and Sandra are so incredibly "Noo Yawk" stereotypical that it makes them believable and understandable to readers! I loved this book ever since I started reading it. In a Hiaasen-esque (one must realize the similarities between Shames and Hiaasen...just look at the covers of their books) fashion, Shames tells the story of Joey Goldman and girlfriend Sandra as they seek their promised land; Joey doesn't know how, but he plans to get rich quick in the land of "sun, surf, and sleaze." But Joey's NYC mob background catches up with him via his half brother Gino. I'll leave the rest of the story to you (I really hate when people just give a little summary of the book, that is NOT a review.). Filled with lovable characters like Bert The Shirt and Zack, there just aren't enough words of praise to give it. You'll laugh out loud but you can really feel the things these people are going through. I'm sure this probably isn't one of my better reviews, but this book puts me at quite a loss for words; on one hand funny, on the other poignant, but one word will describe it---excellent! 5 Stars.
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This is a terrific story that seems to be a unique blend of a Jimmy Buffett "margaritaville" concert and the "Sopranos" family, with a lot of heart thrown in. Laurence Shames takes Joey Goldman,the illegitimate son of a New York wiseguy, and moves him to Key West where he intends to make a new start for himself and his amazing girlfriend Sandra. After some very comic attempts at cornering the wiseguy market, things take a very different turn and Joey finds himself doing things he never dreamed he would do, both good and bad! The contrast of fast-paced New York and laid-back Key West lifestyles adds to the fantastic humor of Shames tale. When Joey Goldman begins to come to terms with the realities of his life, what he wants and what he doesn't, the story begins it's wild ride!
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