Sweet and Vicious [Hardcover]

David Schickler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2004

“Fascinating and hilarious,” “relentlessly clever,” and “truly haunting” are all phrases that have been used to describe David Schickler’s unique talent. And all apply to this brash, brilliant novel featuring two of the most memorable characters in contemporary fiction: Grace McGlone and Henry Dante.

Sexy and willful, Grace McGlone is saving herself for the right man. When Henry Dante pulls into the small Wisconsin town where she works at the car wash, she instantly knows he’s the one. He knows it too. But when Grace discovers Henry has “The Planets”—a stolen set of famous Spanish diamonds—stashed in the back seat of his truck, she’s having none of it. She’s “trying for heaven,” and the ill-gotten jewels must go. And so they do, in a race across the American landscape from Chicago to Yellowstone, purusued by a savage gangster obsessed by the diamonds he thought were his.

Passionate, criminal, comical, and possessing all the dark enchantment of a fairy tale, Sweet and Vicious is a modern love story shot straight from the heart of David Schickler’s miraculous imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Sweet and Vicious, acclaimed author David Schickler treats readers to a magical, mystical tale of star-crossed lovers who develop an electrifying bond while trying to evade the nagging ghosts of their respective pasts. In what can be described as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde meets Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Schickler invites readers into a world of crime, passion, shame, fury, and ultimately awe-inspiring love.

Henry Dante is a Chicago enforcer who, after a work call takes an ugly turn, hits the road with a briefcase containing the Planets, the seven diamonds he was supposed to deliver to his boss, legendary gangster Honey Pobrinkis. While stopping for gas in a small Wisconsin town, Henry encounters Grace McGlone, an ethereal beauty who walks through a car wash to meet the man she instantly recognizes as "the one." Tucked in between miles of endless highways, campgrounds, and quickies in the back of a pickup truck, Schickler offers readers the backstories of these two unlikely heroes. Henry "muscles" for Honey as a way to "chew up the clock," while Grace is "trying for heaven" as a way to absolve herself from a shameful encounter with a famous evangelist at the age of fifteen. Yet what proves most striking about this unlikely couple is the immediate intensity of their relationship, and Schickler's ability to sustain that coup de foudre sensation throughout the novel's somewhat bumpy ride. In fact, it is only when Schickler strays too far from this explosive couple that the story begins to drag, and readers may find themselves skipping ahead to the more exhilarating aspects of the book.

Kissing in Manhattan, Schickler's widely praised debut, gave readers a delicious taste of this richly imaginative and refreshing literary voice. Sweet and Vicious will certainly take fans to the next level of author appreciation. As Henry says, "There are bold moments sometimes, moments that scare you and call to you all at once." Readers who heed the call are sure to be rewarded with a thrilling adventure. --Gisele Toueg

From Publishers Weekly

In the much anticipated follow-up to 2001's Kissing in Manhattan, his highly acclaimed story collection, Schickler tracks a pair of gloriously wacky, star-crossed young lovers on the lam from a gang of goons. Driving across the Great Plains in a stolen pick-up truck, loner thug Henry Dante and flame-haired temptress Grace McGlone are bent on giving away a set of seven famous stolen diamonds in a series of impetuous, extravagant gestures that are every bit as improbable as their relationship itself. From the omen-laden day that they first meet—when Grace walks through a car wash to introduce herself to Henry—Schickler rewinds to relate their vivid and bizarre backstories. Myriad off-kilter characters are entwined in the trajectory of Henry and Grace's month-long romance, including Grace's club-footed, treehouse-building classmate; the smarmy radio evangelist who deflowered her when she was 15 while whispering "God's will"; and the vengeful Chicago mobster who happens to be Henry's boss. Delightfully but believably nutty, Grace and Henry each have a precisely modulated moral code and a sense of honor forged in the weirdness and tragedy of their respective pasts. Though their largely innocent misadventure—think Bonnie and Clyde as it might have been written by Tom Robbins—comes to a somewhat disappointingly tidy conclusion, the ride is more than worth the price of entry.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: The Dial Press (August 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385335687
• ISBN-13: 978-0385335683
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,109,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A highly sexed criminal fairy-story", September 26, 2004

By 

CJ-NYC (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet and Vicious (Hardcover)

... such is the description that appears on the cover of the UK edition of Sweet and Vicious and which I think accurately conveys the style and substance of this very entertaining novel. What cannot be so easily described is the writing, which often stopped me in my tracks as I found myself re-reading passages in admiration. The other reviews posted here should already give you a pretty good idea of the plot and main characters, so I'll let Schickler's writing speak for itself and try to point out some of the nuances that I think make this book not only a great read, but also demonstrate the author's talent and imagination. Take, for example, the following passage that describes Hilda Reisch, a sexual conquest of secondary character Roger Pobrinkis (one of the gangsters pursuing main characters Henry Dante & Grace McGlone): "Hilda was a towering, pale-skinned adjunct professor visiting from Denmark, maybe thirty-five, a woman who rarely showed smiles but always showed leg. She shod herself daily in skirts and low boots. She wore her black permed-out hair like an explosion on her head, and her eyes, also black, dismissed almost everything they saw." Or, take this description of Grace's reaction to hapless Stewart McFigg and the sincere yet inadvertently hilarious valentine that he presents to her in front of their sixth grade class: "In response, Grace delivered a stinging public rebuke of Stewart, in which she blamed him for all the freckles beginning to plague her body, claiming that the years of blushing brought on by his advances had triggered the speckling of her skin." These are but a sampling of inspired passages to be found throughout the novel, making for a unique and memorable reading experience. I highly recommend this book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish It Were Twice as Long, November 27, 2004

By 

Bartleby (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet and Vicious (Hardcover)

David Schickler achieves, in a few deft strokes, more character definition than most novelists can achieve in a dozen lumbering paragraphs. In the space of a few short pages, I lost all sense of aesthetic distance and began to care about the two main characters, Henry and Grace.

If viewed from the outside looking in, Henry and Grace would appear to be the recurring inscrutables who populate the stories recounted in our local newspapers and by our network affiliates. These are the stories that, once told, don't make a lot of sense to us and leave us wondering how anyone could do something like that.

But Schickler portrays Henry and Grace from the inside looking out. We understand each character. We quickly share the interior logic that informs their actions.

Schickler writes readable prose. But, for all its accessibility, the prose is rewarding. Schickler's style is spare, but effective. Transparently, Schickler switches from the first-person for Henry to the third-person for Grace and the other characters. By the end, a reason for this device emerges.

My only complaint, when I finished the novel, was that Schickler didn't give us another 100 pages of Henry and Grace. Maybe it would have jeopardized the balance of the story or the elegance of the style, but I'll bet Schickler could have pulled it off. All I know is that I could have found the time for another 100 pages of Henry and Grace.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing. I had a great time reading this book!, September 17, 2004

By 

D. Milledge (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sweet and Vicious (Hardcover)

The story may sound like you've seen it all before - star crossed lovers on the run - but it's Schickler's incredibly imaginative voice that sets it apart from the rest. His creativity is so stunning I found myself whispering in awe, "wow," more than a few times.

It's a swift read but this is no plot-point then plot-point novel. It's the characters that are in the driver's seat here. Fresh and inspired, some shocking, some hilarious (and heartbreaking), they're not tired retreads with the old predictable tics and traits. Add to that Schickler's unique ability to seamlessly blend the fantastic with the everyday and you're holding a very special book.

With muscle, wit, and heart, Schickler takes us on a wonderful ride to a place I thought was truly beautiful. This is a tight and entertaining novel that shouldn't be missed.