Customer Reviews

Lovers, Muggers & Thieves - A Boston Memoir

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An eye opening coming of age true story which captures the late 1960's as it occurred in the "combat zone" section of Boston. The author has insightful recall of his foray into college that seem to be best explained with the distance of 4 decades. It reveals a young man in the center of the hard core and gritty surroundings of that particular time and place while maintaining an awestruck and sometimes wide-eyed wonder of never-ending experiences. Not "The Graduate" but rather a very entertaining read, showing the inevitable transformation of himself, but not without a struggle to hold on to the person he was when he started out.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Jon had written a book. Curled up for a good read last week, and enjoyed his story. Because we had gone to the same High School, it was 'as if' he were telling me about that year, and I could see him in my mind's eye 'grow up' from one experience to the next. This story could be a Movie of the Week...characters were well written and easily likable. And hey, not Everyone comes Of Age in the Combat Zone! Well done, Jon.

This writer is an absolute talent, a great narrator, an keen witness of an era, pages full of colour and music, beautiful sense of humor and fresh, up-tempo writing. Tudan keeps the story going, and you just can't leave it. You finish the book, you close it and you wonder what you could ever read next..Another book by the same author! I hope it's coming soon..

Jonathan Tudan has done something brave--he's shown us what it was like for an innocent, wide-eyed kid to come to the big city. In Tudan's case, he ends up in Boston's seediest neighborhood--the Combat Zone. I'm not usually a fan of memoirs, because most people's lives, no matter how famous, just aren't that intertesting when stretched out over hundreds of pages. But Tudan in his book shows us just one small slice of his--and what an amazing slice it was! One rollicking, crazy year where he went from child to man. The stories he tells of the pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers he lived with are so honest and real--as seen through the eyes of an 18 year old kid--that I couldn't help but feel I was there with him. When I finished the book, I went for a walk in what had been the Combat Zone, and mourned its loss. What Tudan describes in his book was a place filled with character; Emerson College, Starbucks and the Ritz Carltion have all but erased that. For anyone who longs for a bit of Boston's seedy, colorful past, read this book--Jonathan Tudan has brought it back to life!

Regardless of the art form, if it doesn't affect me emotionally it has no value; it is in fact, worthless. Jonathan Tudan's "Lovers, Muggers and Thieves" brings his readers real value.

Tudan writes with brilliant colors but appropriately on a drab gray canvas. The writing effectively captures the essence of the time and place, Boston's "Combat Zone" and the year 1969, indeed a recipe for trouble. In Tudan's work however, the time trumps the place. It was a time when people, certainly "Jonny" and his fellow characters, expect, experience and live, feeling entitled to our promised "Freedoms" and perhaps a bit more. This shared sense of freedom, along with the affability of Jonny and Robert, diffuse the place enough to make it possible for two 18-year-old white males to control a Combat Zone Flop House!

Tudan writes in and out of the margins of a blurry space in life where the innocent encounter the immoral, either by chance or choice. His memoir is a true "Coming of Age" where "The Good, Bad and the Ugly" not only co-exist but challenge and change each other. "Jonny's" own character is genuine and sincere. The reader will sense some attributes of a Tom Sawyer along with an element of a Holden Caulfield.

Jonathan Tudan's Boston Memoir is very good. However, from it's beginning, I found myself having some difficulty keeping track of a myriad of colorful characters. A better reader than myself may not have to re-read paragraphs or pages, but that matters little since his work deserves re-reading. Very well done Mr. Tudan!

Daniel M. Hayes
Charlestown, RI

Jonathan Tudan was about as green as a blade of grass when, in 1969 at age 18, he found himself the Super of a grimy apartment building in Boston's Combat Zone. The area was notorious for adult entertainment as strip clubs and prostitution were abundant. Tudan had left his comfortable upbringing in Hartford, Connecticut in the summer of 1968 to attend a technical college to study Architecture. While in school, he becomes acquainted with a student whose brother owns a building with rooms rented by the week needing a new manager. Jonathan thinks he's walked into a plum opportunity to live rent free in his own place and has asked another new friend, often referred to only by his surname, Van Helden, to join him. Of course, it turns out to not be what he's hoped for. In one short year, he has a number of experiences including his first sexual encounter which doesn't go quite right and is described with subtle hilarity and saving one of his building's tenants from being stabbed by her crazy boyfriend. Along his journey, he encounters a number of prostitutes, strippers, pimps, and other shady characters. All the while, he stays in school and manages to pass- barely.

"Running this show is a mind-blowing business; a bit like being mayor in the Land of Oz on acid." -from Lovers, Muggers & Thieves

The really interesting thing about Tudan's story is that he's able to expose the humanity in this cast full of many lost souls. He befriends several prostitutes and strippers as well as lust after most of them. He also manages to maintain his own humanity. He's a great story teller as I had clear images of everything happening. Although, the memoir goes just over 400 pages, it never loses its momentum. Each chapter is a mini adventure but the story is the sum of its parts. Though he lives in a seedy area filled with unsavory types, petty crimes, and grungy living quarters, he never really becomes part of it nor it apart of him. This is where the wisdom he gains from this experience comes into play. In the end, Tudan realizes that he's growing up too fast but he doesn't have to. However, this memoir is not so much about end results as it is about the coming of age of a kid in Boston in 1969. This is an entertaining read that shouldn't be missed and, dare I say it...I hope it makes its way to the silver screen.

Coincidently, my life experience is similar to that of the author, so I had a pretty good frame of reference. The juxtaposition of "first time away from home" with the tumultuous political and social upheavals then taking place in Boston really took me back. While you can tell that Jonathan is not an author by trade, he did a nice job of recounting things, newspaper-style. For anyone in their 50's and/or from Boston or another college town, it's a chance to reminisce without worrying about the police at the door.

Mr. Tudan has given us an image of a time period which accurately depicts the Combat Zone of Boston in the '70's. He wrote with remarkable insight from first hand experience and from a young man's point of view, just emerging from a relatively sheltered Catholic upbringing. He brings a refreshing depiction of what was then a fairly sad and disoriented neighborhood. He brought life to his characters and presented them in a sympathetic manner. He makes me wish I had met them. An excellent first time effort. Kudos. Write the next one Mr. Tudan.