Nothing Personal [Paperback]

Jason Starr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2000

The DePinos are miserable, living in a rundown apartment above a deli on Tenth Avenue. The Sussmans live in a posh building on the Upper East Side. When Joey DePino loses his job and is threatened by his bookies and loan shark, he involves the Sussmans in a sick, desperate plan to pay off his gambling debts. But ad exec David Sussman has his own problems trying to stop his suddenly psychopathic mistress from ruining him, and he won't go down without a fight. As the lives of the DePinos and the Sussmans become increasingly intertwined, Joey and David plunge their families into an amoral world where anything is possible and nothing is personal. Part crime novel, part unflinching satire of compulsive gambling, eating disorders, and cold-blooded evil, Nothing Personal firmly establishes Jason Starr as one of the most exciting young noir novelists around.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With his debut novel, Cold Caller, Jason Starr emerged on the mystery scene as heir to the bleakly cynical Jim Thompson (The Grifters) and James M. Cain (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice). His follow-up effort, Nothing Personal, confirms Starr's position at the cutting edge of the revival of classic American noir, tracing in sharp relief lives of extinguished opportunity and of petty troubles that accumulate, somehow, into major crimes.

Thus it is that hapless Joey DePino, saddled with an incurable gambler's optimism--but even worse gambler's luck--finds himself threatened with the deadly wrath of irate and unpaid bookies. What to do? Drift into an inept plan to kidnap Jessica Sussman, that's what. Joey's wife Maureen and Jessica's mother Leslie were childhood friends, and Joey has endured enough anemic evenings at the Sussman's Upper East Side apartment in New York to feel entitled to a little ransom retribution. Too bad for him that David Sussman, Jessica's father, is currently trying to end an affair with a psychopathic coworker. Hell hath no fury, as everybody knows, and the result is a tangled mess of motive, mistaken identity, and murder. The lives of the Sussmans and the DePinos--so different on their (respectively) gilt-edged and tattered surfaces--form parallel strands intertwining and accelerating toward a dark nadir.

As a genre, noir is an acquired taste: be warned that Starr tends to forsake character development and verisimilitude for an irony outlined in exceedingly broad strokes. You may find yourself getting heartily sick of both the Sussmans and the DePinos--but take comfort in the fact that Starr himself has an equally low opinion of his characters, and is only too ready to offer them up, in the finale, as grist for a bitingly sharp dinner-party mill. --Kelly Flynn

From Publishers Weekly

Noir devotee Starr's jet-black [...] thriller has attitude to spare. Too bad it doesn't have wit and style to match: his all-too-familiar venture into James M. Cain territory is populated by a cast of paper-thin, exceedingly unpleasant characters, all of whom quickly outstay their welcome. [...] In the hands of a master of tongue-in-cheek edge, like Elmore Leonard, or an expert practitioner of the down-and-dirty melodrama, like Donald Westlake's alter ego Richard Stark, [the premise of this book] could provide the foundation for a sharp, caustically funny sendup of marriage, adultery and obsessive behavior. Unfortunately, Starr's approach is much more run-of-the-mill. His dialogue is flat and listless, lacking the necessary staccato, noirish bite; his plotting is mundane and his observations ("Maureen's insecurity was something Leslie could always count on. No matter how bad things got in Leslie's life, Maureen was always a step lower") are uninspired to the point of banality. Although it moves along smoothly and just manages to retain the reader's interest throughout, Starr's novel proves to be a decidedly low-wattage thriller. Film rights to Spice Factory. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows/No Exit Press (March 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568581610
• ISBN-13: 978-1568581613
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,214,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JASON STARR is the international bestselling author of many novels, including THE PACK which is out in hardcover and e-book from Berkley/Ace on June 7, 2011. Starr's other novels are COLD CALLER, NOTHING PERSONAL, FAKE I.D., HARD FEELINGS, TOUGH LUCK, TWISTED CITY, LIGHTS OUT, THE FOLLOWER and PANIC ATTACK. He has won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award and his books are published in more than a dozen languages. He has also co-written three novels with Ken Bruen--BUST, SLIDE, and THE MAX--and edited BLOODLINES, an anthology of horse racing stories for Vintage Books. He lives in Manhattan and is currently writing the sequel to THE PACK.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Starr creates another nasty noir thriller!, April 15, 2000

By 

Michael E. Rosen (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nothing Personal (Paperback)

I can think of a lot of adjectives to describe Jason Starr's latest novel like: dark; disturbing; exciting; funny; crafty; thoughtful; and, depressing. My top two, however, are gripping and complex. It's gripping because you have, at most, 3 pages to relax, and then, if you don't want to ignore more important things than reading this book, you must be clinically obsessive-compulsive. It is complex because, once again Starr creates accurate portrayals of people we know and must both sympathize with as well as detest by the end of the story.

Starr's ability to peel away the superficial layers of sanity, sobriety and humanity that his protagonists hide behind, is disarming and terrifying. By the end of the story almost every character is both a predator and victim. The story is dark, cold, exciting and tense, but with enough "justice" such that you should be able to face your friends and neighbors again with a manageable amount of contempt.

If you like Brooklyn and New York settings you will probably love their portrayals here. Starr is able to accurately capture the ambience of two distinct worlds that lay side by side and constantly grind and bump with tension. Starr knows New York and presents it in a way that is inciteful but not overbearing.

Starr's story is always well plotted with an exceptional interweaving of two worlds that ultimately collide. At times, I was repulsed, scared, angry and excited by this unpredictable story.

As with his previous novel, Starr blends much of societies culturally chic obsessions and pathos with humor. He also seems to be able to accurately portray, even with some sympathy, the psychological traumas of chosen and popular lifestyles.

So...do you like noir? Do you like well written suspense? Do like dark, dark humor and enjoy twisted justice? If you can answer yes to any one of these questions, you'll love this book!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Noir at its best, September 2, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nothing Personal (Paperback)

At thirty-five years old, Joey DePino worries about what the bookies and loan shark will do to him. However, Joey is more concerned about how his wife Maureen will react if she learns about his gambling debts. Frankie the bookie has already cut off Joey's credit and two thugs employed by Carlos the loan shark has cost him two stitches and bruised ribs. Joey also lost his job for lunching too long at OTB, but feels one more bet, perhaps the Pacers against the Magic will make things right.

Ad executive David Sussman was strutting just a week ago about his affair with employee Amy Lee. Now he panics that the obsessed Oriental will destroy his life. She threatens to call his wife if David fails to marry her and who knows what she will do to his daughter. David wonders how he will end his relationship with the troubled Amy. Maureen and Leslie have been friends since school, but soon their lives will intertwine through the actions of their spouses in a way neither could have predicted.

NOTHING PERSONAL is a dark urban noir that takes the audience into an amoral world where beating the rap is more important than accountability for one's activities. On the surface Joey and David seem like two radically different personalities, but they react to their crisis in similar ways, mostly not wanting it to reach their wives. The characters are fully drawn so that the audience understands the two couples even Amy's fatal attraction. Jason Starr lives up to his surname with this taut thriller that climaxes with an intriguing unexpected twist.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book and went and read all other books by Jason, March 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Nothing Personal (Paperback)

This book is an edge of your seat tension building plot that held my interest grippingly. I read it in one night and then the next day went and bought every other book written by Jason Starr. They are all brilliant. I love the New York setting in the dead end type jobs with the tension between the boss and main character. The marital tension. So well-written and clever. I haven't read a similar book and it was joy to read something different and intriguing.