Life Is Hot in Cracktown (Hardcover)

~ Giovinazzi (Author) "Life is hot in Cracktown..." (more)
Key Phrases: transit guys, fucking mother, Miss Lonely, Lou the Greek, Kenny Carter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Giovinazzo's debut collection of short fiction purports to tell real stories of the crack-ridden inner-city streets, but their combined effect is to repel rather than reveal. Of his 16 tales, all previously unpublished, not one has any but the crudest plotting, scene-building or characterization. In a typical story, "Miss Lonely Has a Date Tonight," a prostitute has sex with her pimp's chauffeur in exchange for a few hits of crack; after suffering rape and physical abuse, she is brutally murdered. In another, "Londa Fries Her Egg," a pregnant crack addict is beaten savagely by her father until she aborts her fetus. Scatological, crudely written and relentlessly sordid, these tales are only for readers stronger in stomach than in discrimination.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Giovinazzo's literary debut is a disturbing collection of vignettes about life on the edge. These are frank, vivid, and relentlessly violent tales of lives circumscribed by poverty and drug addiction. "Londa Fries Her Egg" graphically depicts a crack addict willing to undergo any amount of abuse for the sake of another hit. "Bullets and Brutality" concerns a gang member who hopes to curry favor with a drug dealer by killing a rival and instead finds himself set up. "Bodega Graveyard Shift" involves an immigrant struggling to make it by the rules whose dreams are shattered by a fateful gunshot. Though often substituting shock for art, most of these stories are effective on their own terms, with the best forming a sort of Last Exit to Brooklyn for the 1990s. This collection is recommended for larger collections.
- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press; 1st edition (April 19, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560250542
• ISBN-13: 978-1560250548
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #377,088 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hardcore, in-your-face inner-city reality, June 4, 1999

By A Customer

Masterfully written yet ultra depressing, this book unleashes a no-holds-barred account of life in the not-so-trendy part of town. It forces us to see what we try so hard to ignore, the ugly truth about New York's Lower East Side: drugs, pimps,prostitutes, dimestore criminals, murder. As painful as it is at times to read, it's impossible to put down. Kudos to Giovinazzo!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very interesting, November 24, 2008

By	Shannon Arader (New York, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was really good, especially if you are in to novels that can get pretty graphic. The book had a way of opening your eyes to see what really happens in inner cities. It was a pretty easy read, and I read through it really quick.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CONFUSION ON BLASTOFF STREET, June 16, 2002

By	boilingwatergenitals (Long Island, New York) - See all my reviews

This book will make you think, and feel. Its characters are complex people. But what makes their lives so tragic is their direct or indirect involvement with the homogenizing grind of crack addiction. As this currency and the pursuit of it control varying, but always overwelming amounts of the characters' time and energy, we see them stripped of all human traits except pain. And this, in action and ideation, is the sad fate of the addict. Superb, truthful book.