Sweet Money Girl / Life and Death of a Tough Guy [Paperback]

Benjamin Appel (Author), Carla Appel (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2009

Two novels from the mean streets of 1940's New York City. Sweet Money Girl was originally published by Gold Medal Books in 1954 and tells the story of three lives that collide one December in New York City Hortense, the dance instructor who knows how to look out for number one; Maxie, the mamma's boy who just wants his shot at happiness; and Hugh, who wrecks it for all of them. Life and Death of a Tough Guy was originally published in 1955 by Avon Books. Joey Kasow is a skinny Jewish kid growing up in the 1920's in Hell's Kitchen. Tormented by the Irish thugs in the neighborhood, he eventually gains their begrudging respect and is allowed to join their gang, the Badgers. Joey grows up tough. He knows he's got to take whatever is dished out to him to stay in the gang. He learns how to inflict pain--he learns how to kill. And gradually he works his way up the ladder to become the Spotter's enforcer. He is now Joey Case. But Joey can't escape his past, falling in love with innocent young Sadie Madofsky, his refuge from the brutal world around him. All Joey wants is to get ahead--but the Spotter has other plans for him.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The rise-and-fall tragedy of a man neither good nor wholly evil, written with haunting sensitively and perception. --Anthony Boucher, N.Y. Times (on Life and Death of a Tough Guy)

The details of how New York looked and felt then, and the men and women who populated it, are shot through with so much nuance and energy that they seem alive on the page today. --Wendell Jamieson, New York Times

A street corner Macbeth of our time. --Clifton Fadiman, New Yorker

About the Author

Benjamin Appel was born in 1907 in New York City and grew up in Hell s Kitchen. He began writing short stories and was published in both literary and slick magazines. Brain Guy was his first novel, followed by fifteen others. In 1945 and 1946 he was sent as historian/journalist with the McNutt Mission to the Philippines. Returning to the States, he moved to Roosevelt, New Jersey, a New Deal resettlement town, where he lived with his wife and three daughters and wrote both fiction and nonfiction until he died in 1977. Carla is the daughter of Benjamin Appel, and currently lives in Washington D.C.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 301 pages
• Publisher: Stark House Press; Reprint edition (January 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933586265
• ISBN-13: 978-1933586267
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,379,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pair of adventures more immersive than a movie!, July 10, 2009

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet Money Girl / Life and Death of a Tough Guy (Paperback)

Sweet Money Girl / Life and Death of a Tough Guy collects a pair of two-fisted action novels by New York City Hell's Kitchen native Benjamin Appel (1907-1977). "Sweet Money Girl", originally published in 1954, is the saga of two men who are both passionately in love with the same woman - Hortense, a dance instructor who has long since lost all pretensions of idealism and always looks after herself first. "Life and Death of a Tough Guy", originally published in 1955, tells the story of Joey Kasow, a Jewish kid growing up in 1920's Hell's Kitchen who becomes increasingly entangled with an Irish gang, eventually serving as their enforcer. New York City itself comes alive in both novels, which pulse with a synergetic resonance that reflects the author's personal life experience. The result is a pair of adventures more immersive than a movie! Highly recommended.