Mad Dog [Hardcover]

Jack Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1992

An old man looks back on his youth, describing the night he was mistaken for Public Enemy Number One John Dillinger, saved from lynching, and inspired to begin a carnival show based on Dillinger's exploits.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kelly has moved beyond the promise of Apalachinok? spok and Protection ; his latest delivers big. Two laconic, supple voices give us different views of John Dillinger's life: one is a third-person account of Dillinger's last 14 months in 1933-1934, while the second comes from an unnamed narrator who joins a Midwest traveling circus after he's been mistaken for the famous fugitive, putting together a "Dillinger Alive" act. The book moves seamlessly between the two perspectives (at one point we read more than a page about a bank robbery before realizing it's part of the circus act) and different times (the narrator often speaks to us today). There are some remarkable set pieces: an old Frank James lecturing on brother Jesse; the protracted death of a gang member; the 1973 remembrance of a robbery hostage, a grandmother whose "slender legs still suggested what a number she must have been, what a dancer." And always we're aware of the Depression's terrible effect. The narrator's affair with an aerialist's wife who portrays "Billie Frechette" in his act strangely reflects Dillinger's affair with the real Billie, whom the narrator meets a few years later, putting further spin on the book's clever toying with time and reality. The narrator admires the circus elephants who act with "bored nonchalance," as if "they're putting one over on the suckers." But readers get their full money's worth here.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Mad Dog is John Dillinger, the last in a line of peculiarly American heroes descended from Jesse James and lionized because they dared defy a system unresponsive to the needs of the common folk. The narrator is "The Man Who Looked Like John Dillinger" in a carnival act touring the Midwest at the height of Dillinger's hold on the nation's imagination. The device of an actor's attempt to come to grips with his character's psyche enables us to get a much deeper insight into Dillinger's life and times. Dillinger's story is interspersed with the narrator's uneasy attempt to find love, fame, and fortune by adopting the notorious outlaw's identity. When the playacting becomes too real, we learn that lies and deceit can be as dangerous as Baby Face Nelson's tommy gun. Kelly has told a familiar tale with enough verve and imagination to make it fresh and up to date. Recommended.
- Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; First Edition edition (March 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689121458
• ISBN-13: 978-0689121456
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,756,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jack Kelly is the author of five novels and numerous works of nonfiction. He was raised in upstate New York on the shore of Lake Ontario, spent many years in New York City and currently lives in the Hudson Valley. With a wide following among crime-fiction devotees, Kelly has brought a precise and fluid style to the genre. His writing was called "adrenaline in words" by the New York Times. Kelly's novels combine ear-perfect dialog and suspenseful plotting with flat-out action. While pursuing a successful career as a professional writer, the author has volunteered as an EMT, driven a cab in New York, lived in Europe and Central America, and swum the English Channel (twice). His watchword: "The veneer is thin, brother."