Montezuma's Man [Hardcover]

Jerome Charyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1993

Joe Barbarossa is a descendant of a Nez Perce warrior who was scared of blood. Joe isn't. When he whacks someone he stays whacked - usually - and when he sells dope he gets away with it, always. Joe isn't just any warrior, he's a New York City cop. He's also Montezuma's Man. He just doesn't know it yet. FBI don Frederic LeComte wants Joe to be Isaac Sidel's man. Isaac wants Joe to drive his black Dodge. Along with the Pink Commish, Joe becomes one of the Black Stocking Twins, hitting Mafia social clubs from Brooklyn to the Bronx. But neither Isaac nor Barbarossa are prepared for the sea of blood and trouble into which they will plunge. Two estranged mobsters - Sal Rubino and Jerry DiAngelisare quarreling over some wooden Sicilian puppets. In the hands of a master puppeteer and his assistant, the hand-carved dolls tell stories of war and honor and heartbreak reaching back to the time of Charlemagne. In the hands of master string puller LeComte and a Mafia turncoat named Montezuma, the puppets tell another story: one of murder, mayhem, and kilos of elegantly imported heroin...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With his usual, irresistible freight-train momentum, Charyn ( The Good Policeman ) charts a Dante-esque descent through increasingly corrupt circles of New York City as police commissioner Isaac Sidel and his chauffeur-cop Joe Barbarossa confront a familiar roster of hoodlums and politicos in city government, organized crime and the Archdiocese leadership. Barbarossa, a Vietnam vet and drug dealer, is hired by Frederic LeCompte, FBI kingpin and druglord (everyone has multiple occupations--and multifaceted values--in Isaacland), to keep tabs on Sidel. Masked in black stockings, Sidel and Barbarossa rob a series of social clubs belonging to mob leader Jerry DiAngelis, while Sidel's long-time girlfriend, Margaret Tolstoy, takes care of wheelchair-bound rival mobster Sal Rubino. The two warring crime figures (who were not killed in the previous Maria's Girls ) are also quarreling over some carved dolls that serve as priceless antiques and vessels for transporting illegal substances. In Sidel's world, where it's possible to swear and cry or to lie and tell the truth simultaneously, Charyn traces overwrought storylines in foul, funny language while weaving crime and violence, love, honor and betrayal (the question of who Barbarossa really works for is central) into a compelling chaotic unity.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Now that his right-hand-man Manfred Coen is dead, New York Police Commissioner Isaac Sidel (The Good Policeman, etc., etc.) recruits a new lieutenant, Joe Barbarossa, an Irish/Italian/Nez Perc‚ on the outs with Isaac's Justice Department scourge Frederic LeComte ever since he killed Montezuma, a doper turned DEA undercover agent. Posing as the Black Stocking Twins, the Pink Commish and his new sidekick begin knocking off mob social clubs around town--only to find themselves caught in a crossfire between Sal Rubino, current lover of Isaac's old flame Margaret Tolstoy, and mobster Jerry DiAngelis, both of whom are fighting to recover a fabled group of puppets used to smuggle heroin. As usual in Charyn, there's much, much more: Joe falls in love with Isaac's much-married daughter Marilyn the Wild; Montezuma turns up alive after all; and Isaac can move against Mayor Becky Karp's corrupt administration only by entering the mayoral race himself. How will the campaign go? Tune in for the fourth installment of the ``New Isaac Quartet.'' Not for the fainthearted--each of Charyn's baroque anti- procedural fantasies is required reading for all the others--but another bracing immersion in the most sustained attempt to date to create a personal mythology out of a police hero. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 277 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press; First Edition edition (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892964618
• ISBN-13: 978-0892964611
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,563,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in the mean streets of the Bronx and have remained a city wolf, dividing my time between New York City and Paris.

I grew up reading comic books and watching movies; you can see their influences in my books. I started writing novels at the age of eleven; Amazon carries 40+ titles, fiction and non-fiction.

For the past fourteen years I taught film at the American University of Paris.

I love Emily Dickinson's poems and William Faulkner's novels. I also love Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," which has the feel of a novel. (I wrote a book about Tarantino, "Raised by Wolves," after the film's release.)

My novel "The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson," published in 2010, inspired a community of more than 3500 Emily Dickinson Facebook fans dedicated to the poet's place in the 21st century.

"The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson" is now available in paperback in a reading group edition with online reading guide.

My most recent book, "Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil," was released on March 8, 2011, part of the Yale University Press series on American Icons. More than 1000 fans are already registered on its Facebook page.

I invite you to join me on Facebook for "The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson" or "Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil." Or visit my website: www.jeromecharyn.com