Customer Reviews

Johnny Porno

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Frankly, I do not usually pay much attention to book blurbs because of how writers generally trade them among themselves, their special way of exchanging rather painless favors. But to Charlie Stella's credit, most of the blurbs on the cover of "Johnny Porno" come not from authors, but from newspaper and magazine critics. And then there's this one from Ken Bruen, a man who has written several of my favorite hardcore crime novels, "Stella is a winner, a true artist." Despite my misgivings about the honesty of book blurbs, when a talent like Ken Bruen offers that kind of praise, I do tend to listen - and, in this case, I am happy that I did.

"Johnny Porno" is set in 1973, a year during which Richard Nixon is still hoping to survive the Watergate break-in, the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes abortion, the Viet Nam War officially ends and the state of New York bans the screening of perhaps the most famous pornographic film of all time, "Deep Throat." It is also the year that John Albano, a hotheaded carpenter, is stripped of his union card after he argues with the wrong man on a job site, making it near impossible for Albano to pay child support to his ex-wife.

John Albano loves his son and sincerely wants to provide for him but, since losing his high paying union job, he simply cannot meet his obligations to the boy. So when a New York mobster offers him the job of gathering cash receipts from the illegal showings of "Deep Throat," Albano jumps at the chance to earn some extra money. Albano's quick fists, and his even quicker temper, first bring him to the attention of the mob boss, but that same inability to control himself will soon have him in trouble with Eddie Vento, the man who hired him. Unfortunately for him, John Albano has a special talent for making deadly enemies, and his life is about to get complicated.

Charlie Stella has filled "Johnny Porno" with a wide variety of characters. There are mob enforcers, hit men, crooked cops, good cops, vindictive ex-wives, fragile FBI men, drug addicts, police informants, wannabe porn stars (and those who live like porn stars already), good girls, con men, good guys, cute kids, loyal mothers - and Johnny Porno, a man who hates the nickname he is stuck with and just wants a little respect for his efforts to do right by his son. This is a gritty, complicated story and it is not for the faint-of-heart or the easily offended. If books were rated in the manner of Hollywood movies, "Johnny Porno" would have earned at least an "R" rating for itself. But if you enjoy Soprano-style fiction, you will not want to miss this one.

As the Chicago Sun-Times put it, (Stella) "May just be the best crime writer you've never read."

As a huge fan of Charlie Stella, I've been eagerly awaiting his seventh novel. My high expectations were richly rewarded with this crime drama set in the 1970s, when the New York mob takes charge of distributing now-legendary porno movie 'Deepthroat', starring Linda Lovelace.

The novel's title comes from the nickname of the main character, John Albano, an ill-starred mob runner who earns the moniker 'Johnny Porno' from his job of driving round Long Island, collecting money at Deepthroat screenings. His concerns about the work he does are outweighed by his fears of getting whacked if he quits. On top of this nightmare, there's Johnny's ex-wife Nancy and her tangled love life, detectives investigating Johnny's boss Eddie Vento and trying to shut down screenings of Deepthroat, and a corrupt cop on the take.

Like his other novels - Eddie's World: A Novel of Crime, Jimmy Bench-Press: A Novel of Crime, Charlie Opera: A Novel of Crime, Cheapskates, Shakedown: a novel of crime, Mafiya - Johnny Porno is skillfully paced and tightly plotted. The scenes jump off the page and the dialogue is simultaneously realistic and laugh-out-loud funny. Stella is a master of using conversations between characters to give you an immediate sense of their relationships and who they are. His writing is both shrewd and heartfelt.

The first scene between John Albano and George Berg mixes 'Goodfellas' style wisecracks with acute observation:

"I got nothing to do with this cr__ outside of hauling it back and forth weekends," John said. "I never even seen the damn movie."

"You like magic acts you should," Berg said. "See it, I mean. The star, Linda Lovelace, she has some humble t__s and all, a crooked tooth of two, but she can swallow a telephone pole. It's something every man should get to see before he dies, know what he's missed."

I loved the idea of this 'humble'-looking broad becoming so notorious and unintentionally causing all this trouble. I also loved the characters and was hooked from there on in. It's sheer pleasure to watch the plot unfold, as Stella deftly intertwines the tribulations of the main characters with a dynamic Nixon era backdrop.

I have been following Charlie Stella for years, both his blogs and books. 'Johnny Porno' doesn't disappoint loyal fans like myself. It's not the kind of book you want to showcase on the morning subway ride, both because of the title and the scary mugshot of the author on the back, but it's another page turner from a former knockaround guy. Charlie Stella has always had a knack for incredible dialogue, but what makes this book stand out from his others is the backstory of the mafia's connection to the highest grossing movie of all-time, "Deep Throat." New Yorkers, like myself, will appreciate all of the historical references to the city and see just how much things have changed since the 1970's.

I give this five out of five cement shoes!

~Daniel Scali

Charlie Stella is America's new blue-collar writer-hero, a no-nonsense, unadorned, stripped down raconteur of bare knuckles and lunch buckets - a guy from the streets who you want to believe and want to win. All of Stella's previous novels ("Eddie's World", "Jimmy Bench-Press", "Cheapskates", "Shakedown"...) have been entertaining and gritty tales of New York City's diners and wharves and bars and the good fellas and wise guys and cops and crooks that haunt them - authentic noir told with passion and authenticity than can only come from someone who's lived that life at ground level. But "Johnny Porno" puts Stella in another class - a stratum with James Elmore and Leonard Elmore and classic noir masters like Jim Thompson and Donald Westlake. This is a BIG novel - Stella's best so far - a classic that deserves broad recognition.

Stella takes us back to 1973 - back to the turbulent days of Nixon and Watergate and Cousin Brucey - and of Linda Lovelace and "Deep Throat." Despite free love of the 60's, a still prudish America is shocked by Lovelace's unusual talents, and the movie is banned as pornography. And his B-grade film that would likely have passed virtually unnoticed becomes wildly successful, much to the joy of New York's organized crime. John "Johnny Porno" Albano is a simple, hard-working guy living in a one bedroom Brooklyn dive, just trying to make child support payments for his ten-year old son Jack. A carpenter by trade, his short temper and quick fists have cost him his union card, relegating him to low paying jobs that barely cover the rent. Jobs that include collecting the cash for mob boss Eddie Vento from illicit showings of "Deep Throat," earning John the "Johnny Porno" moniker he despises. Albano's ex-wife Nancy is on her third husband, but still has the hots for number one, Louis Kirsk. Duane Allman look-alike Kirsk is an addictive gambler and chronic loser - a hustler, dope pusher, and woman chaser who's barely keeping ahead of multiple bookie's leg-breakers. He schemes with Nancy to rob Albano of his mob money, providing only one and arguably the central theme of Stella's beautifully convoluted and multi-threaded plot packed with no fewer than a dozen genuinely drawn mobsters, crooked cops, feds, thugs and dames in settings so ripe you can actually smell Canarsie.

This is "LA Confidential" set in New York - a brawling epic of crime and misdeeds, of broken relationships and bottom-sucking scum redeemed by some honorably decent folks just wanting to make a life. Stella's dialog is staccato quick and stiletto sharp - it is blunt and violent and cynically humorous. He nails those days of American funk when the Viet Nam War was finally waning as Watergate was sliming up - a time of a national depression (mental, not economic) that Stella captures with the right tone of nostalgia without saccharine. It's been two years since Charlie Stella's last novel, and it's good to have him back. The wait was worth it - bravo, Charlie!

Set in the New York City of 1973, Charlie Stella's "Johnny Porno" is a crime story of low life and the mob and the attempt to get by with one's life. The book centers around "Deep Throat", starring Linda Lovelace, which became the first pornographic movie to achieve widespread notoriety. The movie went underground in New York after a judge declared it obscene, thus helping the mob, which had bankrolled the venture, to reap enormous profits in underground viewings and related illicit activities.

The hero of this novel, John Albano, is known as Johnny Porno because he works on the weekends as a runner distributing "Deep Throat" for the mob. His predecessor as a runner, known as Tommy Porno, had met a violent end for skimming receipts. John Albano hates his nickname and has never seen the film. He takes the job because he needs to make ends meet. With a sharp temper, Albano has recently punched out a corrupt police office and lost his job as a carpenter. He has child support payments to meet to his wife Nancy. Nancy had been married once before to a man named Louis whom she continues to see and is married for a third time to Nathan, a classical musician. Albano has long lacked female companionship and begins a promising relationship with Melinda, a waitress. As the novel progresses, he becomes more deeply drawn into the world of the mob and of porn.

The book is replete with characters from the mob, centering around Eddie Vento, the highest person in the organization that figures in the story. The reader sees from the inside the world of Vento, his henchmen, together with associated loan sharks, thugs, and mistresses. The book also includes a variety of police characters, some legitimate and some in the pay of the mob. Frequently it is difficult to tell which is which. John Albano, who simply wants to do his job, distribute the film, and be done with it, makes enemies, some who see him as an easy mark, some as a scapegoat, and some as a subject for a personal vendetta. The book is filled with double crosses and triple crosses as Albano's enemies work against him and against each other. The book emphasizes the crasser parts of human nature together with some examples of decency and honesty.

The novel is heavily and perhaps too intricately plotted. The story lines unfold in short chapters, each of which include brief sections which switch from one set of characters to another. Some of the specifics are difficult to follow. Ultimately the story lines tie together. The dialogue is streetwise and tough and the many characters are sharply portrayed. The book is made by its atmosphere with the bars, shoddy restaurants, the streets, and the roads. It is thick with the mob and with the seediness of porn and those who watch it and those who are engaged in it. The book held my interest and kept me going to its conclusion. I wanted to see the seemingly hapless Johnny Porno succeed.

"Johnny Porno" is Charlie Stella's seventh published novel and the first with a historical setting. Stella wrote the introduction to this novel in which he describes his writing experiences and the course of his life which, for a time, gave him first-hand experience with the types of characters and activities he describes. As a student, Stella learned the lesson that "Once you see your name in print, you'll always want it there"; which has served him well as he pursued his dreams of becoming a writer. I enjoyed reading this modern, gritty example of a crime genre novel.

Robin Friedman

In 1973 in New York City John Albano was fired from his carpentry job and his union card revoked for knocking out a foreman. He earns a living driving for a car service and as a courier collecting receipts for the Mafia's showing of Deep Throat; his job as a mob runner has led to his nickname Johnny Porno. However, Johnny knows his salary is a pittance and he has child payments to make to his ex wife Nancy married to spouse three; Johnny is numero two. Thus he considers asking for better paying work from his employer, but fears doing so.

Meanwhile Nancy's first husband Louis tells her they can make a bundle by ripping off Porno and leaving him holding the empty bag with his employer. Nancy has doubts not out of caring one iota for the father of her son, but because of the risk as he hubby three is a nice Philharmonic employee. As the police look at the dealings of Johnny's boss Eddie Vento and investigate a crooked cop, Jonny is caught in the crosshairs.

Although over the top of the Empire State Building, Johnny Porno is a terrific Nixon Era crime caper reminiscent of Elmore Leonard. The story line is fast-paced, filled with action and violence, and stars a seemingly hapless chump struggling to survive in a cesspool. With the fun look at pop culture in circa 1973 enhancing the plot, readers, especially boomers, will enjoy Johnny Porno's New York joy ride.

Harriet Klausner

I have read all of Charlie Stella's novels and loved them all. Had I not, I doubt I would have picked this one up due to the unfortunate title and cover art.

Stella is an artist in being able to relate life events through the eyes of the average working guy. Most authors are choosing characters of great financial means to give them the ability to carry out their imaginative schemes. John Albano is an honorable guy, who is divorced and is trying to make a living for his young son. This story is told through the voices of average, financially

struggling people. It is done so with great insight, use of wit and words of the times. A winner.

John Albano is behind on his child support. To that end, he needs to make quick money, and his car-driving job isn't cutting it. Luckily, he's come into a job running bootleg copies of the newly banned porn film Deep Throat (labeled as "Peter Rabit," misspelling and all) between Brooklyn and Long Island, collecting the receipts from the head-counters at the box office (five dollars for each patron), and giving the proceeds to the mob guys who "bought" the movie (actually, forced the film's writer/director Gerard Damiano out of their partnership).

For this, he is paid fifty dollars a day -- and these are 1973 dollars. The guy who did it before him got the nickname Tommy Porno, but he was caught stealing and turned up dead with his hands cut off. So now they call Albano Johnny Porno, and he doesn't like it.

Meanwhile, John's ex-wife Nancy's first ex-husband Louis -- whom she cheated on John with, and is cheating on her third husband with, too (are you keeping up?) -- has hatched a plan to rob John of the mob's money when John comes to make his weekly child support payment to Nancy, with her help.

Louis owes four thousand dollars to his shylock and his bookie. He keeps looking for his next score but can't cut his nickel bags any more than he already does, or they'll start smelling like an Italian dinner. But Louis is a full-time con artist and philanderer loaded with ideas for whatever can make him an easy buck.

At the same time, Albano is also being pursued by police. Captain Billy Hastings, forced to retire when he took a swing at Albano and got knocked out for his trouble, is bent on revenge. And a duo is trying to clean the porn off the streets by investigating John's boss, Eddie Vento. Author Charlie Stella keeps all these subplots up in the air simultaneously without ever dropping a single ball.

Stella was raised in Brooklyn and spent 18 years making money wherever he could (legally or otherwise, much like his protagonist), so he knows the crowd he writes about. He wrote his first novel, Eddie's World, to impress his current wife, and he has steadily grown a following for his intelligent and astute books about criminals, receiving starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

Inspired by a viewing of the documentary Inside Deep Throat -- Stella and his wife looked at each other and said "Next book" -- Johnny Porno, Stella's seventh novel, is a terrific crime epic from this woefully underknown author. It is loaded with a cast of quirky losers, layabouts, and louts, with the one shining star being John himself. It's the got the kind and number of characters that director Robert Altman liked to juggle, and I like to think it could have been his 1973 crime film if he hadn't decided to reimagine Philip Marlowe with The Long Goodbye.

Based on my experience with Johnny Porno -- I haven't read his other books but plan to remedy that soon (Charlie Opera is $2.00 on Smashwords) -- I must say that Charlie Stella is one of the best writers the crime genre currently has to offer. He's a natural wordsmith, putting down the way people really talk in a way that still reads smoothly -- not an easy task. The fact that Stark House Press, who previously focused on reprinting "lost" pulp novels, chose Stella as their first original author -- after author Ed Gorman recommended him upon reading the manuscript -- says a lot about his peers' respect for him.

I have read all of Charlie Stella's work. Finally got this one and its as good as it gets, just like his predecessors. Charlie says it like it is/Deep Throat became the proverbial forbidden fruit... the mob was gifted a new prohibition. In Richard Condon's Mile High you get the fictionalized version of prohibition 20's style, or if you prefer the hard core reality check out the non fiction Guilt By Association by Jeff Gates. Today its drugs & in Johnny Porno its XXX 70's style, the fiction version.

I liked going back to 1973/4 because I was in San Francisco and got into the Mitchell Brothers crowd for a quikie, an in & out. So with Johnny Porno I got to vacariously revisit the scene, getting a behind the scene, in-depth perspective. It's certainly a better view from an armchair, than dealing direct with the players that Johnny is going to have to play with.

The author's dialogue has to be one of his strong suits, it rings so true. Just the little bits I've played around the edges, tells me he's been in-close to the real deal. This accounts for his authentic sense of the stage, the times, & the players - that walk & talk the game, and make their (un)expected bloody exits.

As one of Stella's charaters puts it/She was greatful he was finished with the life and anxious for him to find work doing something normal. She had really never bought into it anyway, the Mafia. All those wiseguys and goodfellas or whatever it was they called themselves. All she knew was her husband had been abused and for not much more money than he might make selling used cars and probably with a lot less aggravation, not to mention the risk.

So deal yoyrself in. There are going to be cheaters, liars, extreme bluffs, and those you call, might lead to lead speeding your way. To stay in the game, is to stay alive. Getting out is easy; getting out alive? When Johnny gets in at the edges, just to make ends meet, events spiral-out of his control.

But is he on the hook?

Well, when the pull comes, thats when he first realises he's on the hook, and the fight begins. The reel deal in XXX.

Aces & eights are not the way Johnny Porno's going it to play out.

But Johnny, like Wild Bill, can't see full circle.

All Charlie Stella's works are highly recommended!!!!!

If you are into pulp fiction and the 1970s New York crime scene, then this is a book for you. Stella captures the style, speech, and stories of small time crooks in the Big Apple. A story of greed, corruption, double dealing, violence and survival. A 1970s Godfather story told from the bottom up.