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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
More than a few writers have used New York's Coney Island as backdrop, but none have created a hybrid of decay and beauty quite like Rubenstein in his debut novel. The story centers on Ernesto Zanpa, a hard-luck loser who finds Franco the "Gullboy," half bird and half boy, in a seagull nest near the beach, and takes him in as his own. Ernesto is neither motivated nor smart, and his deficiencies are magnified by the many schemes of his money-obsessed streetwalker wife, Venus, and her ambulance chasing lawyer, Irv. From Venus's rise to Web cam stardom to Irv's problems with the Russian mob, their machinations over the fate of young Franco provide the black comedy that drives the book, but too many subplots create a muddle. Each tangent steals momentum from what should be the main story, further sapped by the disjointed way in which Rubenstein jumps from one character to another within each chapter. Ultimately, despite the richness of the imagery, the book is very much like the Gullboy himself—its abnormalities prevent it from fully developing. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Inconceivable is truly the word for this treasure of a tale. The infant Franco is discovered in a seagull's nest by Ernesto Zanpa, a shiftless young man who drifts through his days with as little work as possible. Despite the objections of his young wife, a streetwalker with aspirations of Internet porn stardom, Ernesto quickly becomes attached to the boy with feathers on his body and a beak where his mouth should be. As he takes to fatherhood, he finds himself driven to make a good life for Franco and discovers his hidden culinary talent in the greasy kitchen of the neighborhood diner. At the same time that Ernesto is trying to do right by his boy, plenty of people want to capitalize on the child's oddities, and Ernesto is kept busy fending off a crooked lawyer, the Russian mafia, and a doctor who sees Franco's surgical potential as the ticket to medical glory. The wildly improbable twists and turns of the story are grounded in the all-too-real egocentricity of Rubenstein's characters. By turns tragic and hilarious, this story is about what it means to be a family, the fine line between exceptional and bizarre, and the fact that what is grotesque in this life has little to do with outward appearance and everything to do with personal ambition and greed. Shanahan's simple line drawings that precede each chapter accentuate the wacky charm of this first novel.–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
See all Editorial Reviews
More than a few writers have used New York's Coney Island as backdrop, but none have created a hybrid of decay and beauty quite like Rubenstein in his debut novel. The story centers on Ernesto Zanpa, a hard-luck loser who finds Franco the "Gullboy," half bird and half boy, in a seagull nest near the beach, and takes him in as his own. Ernesto is neither motivated nor smart, and his deficiencies are magnified by the many schemes of his money-obsessed streetwalker wife, Venus, and her ambulance chasing lawyer, Irv. From Venus's rise to Web cam stardom to Irv's problems with the Russian mob, their machinations over the fate of young Franco provide the black comedy that drives the book, but too many subplots create a muddle. Each tangent steals momentum from what should be the main story, further sapped by the disjointed way in which Rubenstein jumps from one character to another within each chapter. Ultimately, despite the richness of the imagery, the book is very much like the Gullboy himself—its abnormalities prevent it from fully developing. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Inconceivable is truly the word for this treasure of a tale. The infant Franco is discovered in a seagull's nest by Ernesto Zanpa, a shiftless young man who drifts through his days with as little work as possible. Despite the objections of his young wife, a streetwalker with aspirations of Internet porn stardom, Ernesto quickly becomes attached to the boy with feathers on his body and a beak where his mouth should be. As he takes to fatherhood, he finds himself driven to make a good life for Franco and discovers his hidden culinary talent in the greasy kitchen of the neighborhood diner. At the same time that Ernesto is trying to do right by his boy, plenty of people want to capitalize on the child's oddities, and Ernesto is kept busy fending off a crooked lawyer, the Russian mafia, and a doctor who sees Franco's surgical potential as the ticket to medical glory. The wildly improbable twists and turns of the story are grounded in the all-too-real egocentricity of Rubenstein's characters. By turns tragic and hilarious, this story is about what it means to be a family, the fine line between exceptional and bizarre, and the fact that what is grotesque in this life has little to do with outward appearance and everything to do with personal ambition and greed. Shanahan's simple line drawings that precede each chapter accentuate the wacky charm of this first novel.–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
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Inside This Book Citations: This book cites 4 books Explore: Citations | Concordance | Text Stats Key Phrases - SIPs: masked baby, paternity test Key Phrases - CAPs: Coney Island, New York, Brighton Beach, Officer Franz, Uncle Sammie (more) Browse Sample Pages: Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover | Surprise Me! |
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Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
IMAGINE CONEY ISLAND AS IT IS, AS IT WAS. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
masked baby, paternity test Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Coney Island, New York, Brighton Beach, Officer Franz, Uncle Sammie, Larry Rubbers, Ernesto Zanpa, Illustrated Man, Uncle Ronnie, Identity Investments, Lizard Girl, Venus Zanpa, Manny's Restaurant, Irv Schagrin, Sea Gate, Ziggy's Sideshows, Broad Channel, Fifth
IMAGINE CONEY ISLAND AS IT IS, AS IT WAS. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
masked baby, paternity test Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Coney Island, New York, Brighton Beach, Officer Franz, Uncle Sammie, Larry Rubbers, Ernesto Zanpa, Illustrated Man, Uncle Ronnie, Identity Investments, Lizard Girl, Venus Zanpa, Manny's Restaurant, Irv Schagrin, Sea Gate, Ziggy's Sideshows, Broad Channel, Fifth