Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

If you like novels that spawn conversation and create intrigue, this is the book for you. Every detail of Gullboy seems carefully chosen to carry a particular meaning (although the members of my reading group didn't always agree as to what that meaning was - but that was the fun of it). I appreciated that no detail seemed arbitrary in the world of this novel, right down to the choice of Coney Island, Brooklyn (famous for it's sideshows and amusement parks, etc.) as a setting where one senses anything might happen -- a place where you go to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride on an author's imagination.

No one protaganist dominates the narrative. Instead, the story is shared by a character ensemble that seems familiar yet bizarre, dark, and endlessly interesting. The plot skillfully braids these characters' lives, switching back and forth in a way that heightens the story's tension until you find you can't sleep till you've learned how it all turns out.

Though I don't think it's literally spelled out anywhere in the book, I found the novel made deft use of the Seven Deadly Sins, with each character representing the embodiment of the classic definition of one of those sins, namely Avarice, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth and Pride (though I should mention not everyone in my group agreed with this point, but as I said, that's part of what makes Gullboy such an interesting read).

A satisfying, stimulating novel you'll want to chat about.

Gullboy is a tremendously fun read...but woven through the delightful, imaginative, fanciful, outrageous and sexy fast-turning pages is an insightful tale of how fathers fail their sons, particularly as they grow into manhood. And, oh, how that failure can be passed down the generations as each son tries to find his way out from feeling abandoned! The author makes Franco an "unreal" boy...or is he? Ernesto and Franco's father-son relationship is so touching, so demonstrative, it feels so real. It makes sense that Ernesto, like so many fathers, just wants to see his son soar. But can Ernesto really see Franco through his cloak of feathers? Read this delightful, meaningful book....and the trip through Coney Island, and all the wonder there ain't bad, either!

I picked up this book after reading about it Vanity Fair. I'm glad I did. What a great read! Entertaining. Funny. Poignant. With memorable characters. And artful writing too.

"Gullboy" tells the story of a young guy living on Coney Island named Ernesto Zanpa. Zanpa is kind of drifting through life as a Brooklyn beach bum when the story begins. He marries a woman named Venus who he knows from "dating" as a local prostitute, a woman who seems much smarter and more ambitious than he does, but one with the morals of a hungry seagull. When, early in the story, Ernesto begins to raise the gullboy, his love of the easy life is broken by the need to look after the kid.

The story then follows what happens to these three: Ernesto, Venus and the gullboy, as their ambitions heat up and fire off in different directions, along with those of the other characters, like a crate of fireworks tossed onto a bonfire.

The story seems to be "about" lots of things, including family, morality, "normality," and responsibility for others, but, to me, at least, the biggest theme seems to be Ambition, and how, on the one hand, it can drive people to accomplish great things, but also, when taken too far, how ridiculous ambition can make you look, not to mention selfish, lonely and ruined. Still, for all of that, this is one of the funniest novels I've ever read. Rubinstein obviously loves his characters, the more rotten their hearts are, the more he seems to enjoy them. It's lowbrow. It's highminded. It's a friggin' work of art, full of lines like this one: "Beauty may be only skin deep, he thought, but then that's where all the nerve endings are."

Give this book to the workaholic in your life, but first you'll want to read it yourself.

A fun and thoughtful book, Gullboy makes great reading for anyone who wants to spend the time getting to know the characters of a novel enough to care (or not) about what happens to them. It's fast paced, crammed with delightfully complex characters, and asks the reader to consider his own capacity (and likely lack thereof) for the kind of unconditional love shown to Franco by his father. As the words on the final pages pass, the author trusts the reader enough to imagine for themselves the consequences of the last tragic incidents of the story. It's easy to do because we already know these characters and the world that they inhabit. When you're done reading, you'll wish to visit Coney Island, wonder at what's going on in posh Trump Tower, and reconsider the way in which you treat the people you know who are living inconceivable lives around you.

Wade Rubenstein's first novel shows off his sense of the zany and the influence of repeated readings of "A Confederacy of Dunces." This is, in many ways, a good thing, because "Gullboy," like "Confederacy," is an entertaining romp through the world of the bizarre.

In the barest sense, it is the story of Ernesto Zanpa, a lazy loser who lives on Coney Island in a moldering house he inherited from his parents. God knows, as a marginally employed, uneducated near-bum, with a prostitute wife, he never would have managed to find a home otherwise. Even within the relative safety of his bungalow, he imagines the cardboard box he will one day inhabit under a cement overpass.

But destiny comes knocking - or wailing, in this case - at his door in the form of a half-human, half-seagull he finds in a nest in his back yard. He adopts the baby and becomes father to the boy, who he names Franco, after his own father. Parenthood transforms Zanpa into a man with a purpose who works daily and cares for his little gull-babe.

It is the other characters who inhabit his world that provide most of the crazy comic fodder. His wife, disgusted with her hubby and his bird boy, becomes an inadvertent online porn star when she has a gastronomical incident in full view of a webcam toilet. His lawyer, a kooky bastard with a successful ambulance-chasing practice, ends up shooting himself in his own penis while running from the Russian Mafia. And, his son, the Gullboy, Franco, is a marvel of unlikely avian growth spurts married to superior human sensitivity, who longs, like the Little Mermaid, to be fully human despite the price he might have to pay.

The supporting cast in the story is too long to list, but most contribute to the comedy in a useful manner. Still, one wonders if the number of freaks spread through the story, like icing on an already sweet cake, could have been pared down a bit to focus the action.

Not to be a spoiler, but the ending misses the mark emotionally and feels as if the author lost his aim somewhere while contriving the whirlwind of action that comprises the last third of the book. Still, all-in-all, "Gullboy" is an amusing and elaborately designed trifle, certainly worth an afternoon or so of one's attention.

Portraits of the characters are painted so richly it makes you feel like you are experiencing their zany lives with them. Ernesto's life seems to be already ultra complex with his star- crossed lover and other crazy friends, when he finds Franco he puts all his efforts into raising this boy that seems to grow up too fast. Franco, is not your average boy but in this way he makes everyone stand up and take notice . Franco is never satisfied with who he is but each character learns something about themselves from him. I enjoyed Gullboy very much and would recommend it to anyone who has never known a birdboy!

Gullboy is an original! With a riveting plot, the story is incredibly edgy and funny. The book is beautifully written, filled with many memorable, often poetic lines.