Gullboy -- The Inconceivable Life of Franco Pajarito Zanpa, A Novel [Hardcover]

Wade Rubenstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2005

A month into the rocky marriage of Ernesto Zanpa and Venus Rojo - two twentysomethings stumbling into adulthood - Ernesto discovers a baby in a seagull's nest near their Brighton Beach bungalow. No ordinary baby, the boy has wing-like arms and a soft sheen of white feathers. Despite the baby's peculiarity, Ernesto is drawn to this gullboy, and decides, against Venus's wishes, to raise the founding as his own. He names the baby Franco, after his own late father, and abandons his life of loafing to support the child. Within a year, Franco grows with bird-like speed from infant to teenager, Ernesto matures from beach bum to workaholic chef, and Venus, tired of her husband's inattention and with ambitions of her own, transforms herself into an Internet porn star. Add in a reprobate attorney, a resentful cop, an overzealous surgeon, a lusty accountant, a pair of Russian mobsters, and a teenage siren named Trina, and life gets more than a little complicated. But perched at the center of this Brooklyn maelstrom where everything's slightly askew is our gullboy - an extraordinary child trying grow up in a world that won't stop staring at him. A tragicomic story in the tradition of Kafka, Cervantes, and John Kennedy Toole, Wade Rubenstein's "Gullboy" is a story about mistaking the best in ourselves for the worst and vice versa - a heartrending novel with a hectic energy, an expansive view, and an unflinching eye.

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.)
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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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (September 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582433305
• ISBN-13: 978-1582433301
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,593,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comic Masterpiece, January 14, 2006

By 

Melvyn Glenn "Mel Glenn" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gullboy -- The Inconceivable Life of Franco Pajarito Zanpa, A Novel (Hardcover)

As someone who grew up in the Brighton Beach/Coney Island area, I was enthralled by this comic, heart-warming novel. Similar in tone to "A Confederacy of Dunces," and "Birdy," first time novelist Rubenstein has a literary tour de force here. By all means suspension of belief is required, but thoroughly enjoy your walk along the boardwalk in this Coney Island of the mind and imagination.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look! Up in the sky!..., November 1, 2005

By 

bookmybreathaway "Jeffrey" (Hudson, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gullboy -- The Inconceivable Life of Franco Pajarito Zanpa, A Novel (Hardcover)

Is it Damon Runyon blasted through the Internet, T.C. Boyle without the doom 'n gloom, a "Confederacy of Dunces" for the 21st century? Yes, yes, yes! -- it's GULLBOY, a fun, fantastical read. This terrific debut combines all of the above--wacky and memorable characters, page-turning plot twists, and a love affair with language and that near-mythical place known as Coney Island--with a genuine meditation on how we treat those who are different and how they see themselves. Rubinstein's first novel balances humor and pyrotechnic displays of wordsmithing with a beautiful modern fable. The surprising ending will have you reaching for your hankie. I can't wait for his next book.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move over Rabelais..., September 20, 2005

By 

G. Brownstein (Wappingers Falls, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gullboy -- The Inconceivable Life of Franco Pajarito Zanpa, A Novel (Hardcover)

This ribald romp of a novel combines humor, farce, and tragedy into a rollicking, riotous, and very original coming-of-age story. Rubenstein has a keen ear for the unique rhythms and dialects of Brooklyn's Coney Island. Witty dialogue, weird and wacky characters, and a whimsical plot all contribute a real spark of imagination to this fast-paced story. As a tale of growing-up "different" in a world filled with absurd circumstances and complicated struggles, "Gullboy" is as entertaining as it is profound. Definitely a must-read!