Lucky Leonardo [Paperback]

Jonathan Canter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

Leonardo Cook, practicing psychiatrist, is experiencing a delicate emotional phase. His wife has left him for another man, his patients are boring and he's feeling somewhat guilty about his relationship with his girlfriend, a Starbucks employee half his age. And he may be on the verge of another nervous breakdown.
When Leonardo is called upon by a friend to talk a tech genius out of making public a secret new innovation-and the tech genius ends up jumping out of the window-Leonardo's life takes flight on a roller-coaster of disaster.
Making a darkly hilarious debut, Jonathan Canter gleefully builds a small Massachusetts town filled with the interrelated lives of fantastically neurotic characters-and at their center, poor, "lucky" Leonardo. Fast-paced and laugh-out-loud funny, Lucky Leonardo is not to be missed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Canter, an attorney and former Harvard Lampoon editor, makes a noteworthy, slightly overambitious debut with this modern-day tale of legal hijinks in a cloistered Massachusetts town. Leonardo Cook is a divorced middle-aged psychiatrist whose affair with a Starbucks barista half his age and endless appointments with patients suffering from boring, self-serving neuroses make up most of his troubles. That is, until William Brockleman, a lawyer acquaintance, hires him to talk a DeltaTek computer software designer, Eugene Binh, out of divulging corporate secrets. Negotiations fail (through no fault of our hero's) and the desperate Eugene, who has barricaded himself into his office, dives out of a seven-story window. Leonardo's usual concerns are thus bulldozed by a series of legal battles initiated by everyone from Brockleman and DeltaTek to the unsuccessfully suicidal Eugene and his money-hungry wife. In trying to put the situation into perspective, Leonardo's middling lawyer offers him this bit of advice: "In litigation," she says, "there's always unexpected twists and turns, like in a suspense thriller. You play it chapter by chapter." Torturing himself with replays of his ex-wife's infidelity, chasing after his runaway 13-year-old son and fielding the advances of multiple stalkers, Leonardo is always just shy of the next raging calamity. There are a few bumpy moments here, but Canter's in-it-for-the-ride narrative is comic and satisfying, accompanying dizziness and all.
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Review

"Sharp, fast and funny: a first from lawyer (and former Harvard Lampoon editor) Canter." -- Kirkus Review, July 15, 2004

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402202148
• ISBN-13: 978-1402202148
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,876,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Tries too hard and way too much ...., January 31, 2005

By 

L. E. Carter - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lucky Leonardo (Paperback)

I read all the rave reviews about this book and was very excited at the prospect of a great weekend read. Instead, I thought it was a book that tried way too hard to be off beat and funny. There were so very many characters, many of them sketchy at best, and the organization of events was very jumpy. I was not at all pleased to have wasted my 11.95 on this one.

4.0 out of 5 stars Lucky Leonardo, April 11, 2009

By 

Jeanine Malarsky (North Andover, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lucky Leonardo (Paperback)

I never read whacky humor. But after speaking with the author on a legal question, I was curious. It took me a while to get into the story because of the numerous characters, and the jumps from scene to unrelated scene.

However, as I adjusted to his slapstick humor and the true-to-life misfortunes, I admired his clever use of words and became intrigued with how he would solve the dilemmas. I have experienced the capriciousness of legal machinations and thus enjoyed the ironic twists and turns of fate as Leonardo's reasonable expectations so often turned into nightmares. You had to love the exposure of how some lawyers think and act as only an insider can reveal. By Jeanine Collins Malarsky - author of BLACK RASPBERRIES and UNWORTHY.

5.0 out of 5 stars Readers are the lucky ones, October 18, 2005

By 

Frederic H. Jacobs - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lucky Leonardo (Paperback)

My only regret is that this extremely entertaining novel had to end. Canter skillfully weaves memorable and honest characters into a matrix of compelling events, which flow across intersecting time lines. If you have been around long enough to, despite your best efforts, be swept up in circumstances beyond your control, this engaging book will shed a bright light on how to keep smiling through it all. It is difficult to put this book down, with its funhouse mirror reflection on how we deal with the turmoil in our lives. If you are lucky enough, you will read this book and learn how to use a sense of humor through it all.