Gone Bamboo [Paperback]

Anthony Bourdain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2009

Welcome to the retirement home of Henry and Frances, ex-New Yorkers and professional assassins. It is a luxury hotel suite in an idyllic, tequila-drenched Caribbean hideaway. It's supposed to be all cocktails and sex on the beach. But when a job icing a Mafioso godfather goes awry, trouble hits paradise ...in the form of a cross-dressing capo, a debauched Irish hard man and a slew of incompetent but vicious US marshals.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

For his second course, Bourdain, novelist (Bone in the Throat, 1995) and chef (at Sullivan's, in Manhattan), dishes up a sorry, soggy mess of a stew in which a good-hearted hit man finds himself on the spot with both mob chieftains and law-enforcement agencies. Hired by an ambitious cross-dressing mafioso named Pazz Calabrese to eliminate his two immediate superiors, Henry Denard dispatches one but only wounds the other, D'Andrea (Donnie Wicks) Balistierian aging capo di tutti capi in New York. After returning to Saint Martin, the idyllic West Indian haven he calls home, the hired gun (a decorated Vietnam vet who went on to work for the CIA) learns his wounded target has turned informant and will testify against former partners in crime. What's more, an accommodating interpretation of the Witness Protection Act allows Donnie Wicks (and a small army of US marshals) to take up residence on Saint Martin. Concerned that he and his hardcase wife Frances may have to find another place to live, Henry talks his way inside the former don's compound for a meet. Not to worry, the elderly outlaw has the nothing-personal aspect of gangdom's business down pat, and he soon takes a shine to the professional killer as well as to his lovely, lethal lady. In the meantime, the expatriate godfather's former underlings mount a deadly campaign to silence him. In the wake of a furious assault on his island home (which costs six feds and a like number of Dominican nationals their lives), Donnie Wicks (now under the protection of venal French officials) is reported dead. As a favor to the American authorities cheated of a show trial, Henry heads north to waste the kinky Calabrese and his top lieutenants with a light anti-tank weapon on a New Jersey construction site. At the close, he's drinking and living it up with Frances and Donnie Wicks at his Caribbean hideaway. In the parlance of cuisine: tripe. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

'A caper of murder and mayhem that reads like Carl Hiaasen on holiday with Elmore Leonard and goes out with a bang like a tequila slammer.' The Times

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd (June 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847670555
• ISBN-13: 978-1847670557
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,644,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony Bourdain is the author of the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo, in addition to the megabestsellers Medium Raw, Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour. His work has appeared in the New York Times and the New Yorker, and he is a contributing authority for Food Arts magazine. He is the host of the popular television show No Reservations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bourdain Drops a Notch, March 14, 2001

By 

Jason Birkby - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gone Bamboo (Paperback)

Maybe three stars is a little low. However in rating a book by an author whose previous work was stellar you can't help but be biased. "Gone Bamboo" is an above average novel with strange characters, a good storyline and some great action. However Bourdain gets away from what made his first book so good. The gangster feel is not as pronounced in this book and the restaurant setting is nonexistent.

"Gone Bamboo" is about semi retired hit man Henry Denard and his wife Frances. In the begining Henry is hired for one last hit on a mob boss Charlie Wagons. After botching the job Henry and Frances are hiding out on a tropical island. When who moves in next door Charlie Wagons himself, also hiding from the mob in the witness protection program. Henry know the mafia will come looking for Charlie and realizes that he may be found too. Henry befriends the ex-mobster and when the time comes for conflict the action really gets jumping.

The major fault of this novel is that it is hard to like Henry or Frances. They are lazy,drug users, which when the actions starts makes it hard to believe their reactions. If you consider reading this book, I strongly suggest you read "Bone in the Throat" first. There are about a half dozen characters who cross over in this book including Tommy Pagano the main character from "Bone In the Throat".

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If Tony Bourdain cooks as well as he writes..., October 1, 2001

By 

Margaret Rovai (Warrenville, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Gone Bamboo (Paperback)

I'll move to New York and eat at Les Halles twice a week. Mid-week, of course.

I loved "Bone in the Throat," and was delighted to find major characters re-appearing in "Gone Bamboo." I read it in an afternoon, and heck! I didn't think it was too hardboiled. In fact,I did cry in a couple of places. Like Elmore Leonard, Bourdain knows how to write dialogue. He also knows how to create characters, and write a pageturning plot. The sense of place, in this case St. Martin, is done so well that I could feel the sand between my toes, smell the barbecue shacks and want to run to the fidge hoping to find a bottle of Red Stripe.

Bourdain has a nice touch especially with creating strong female characters. Frances, the female protagonist, is now my idol and role model.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sophomore Slump, May 10, 2000

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gone Bamboo (Hardcover)

A rather disappointing followup to "Bone in the Throat," this mob caper never reaches the breezy good humor of the Bourdain's debut. There are some decently interesting characters (a crossdressing mobster and a legendary ancient French commando being two), and some offbeat happenings, but the climax is wholly unsatisfying (at least to me). One redeeming aspect is that Bourdain doesn't shy away from killing some of the characters you least suspect will die. Definitely read "Bone in the Throat," before this, as some of characters overlap, and this comes second chronologically.