Cut Numbers : A Novel (Paperback)

~ Nick Tosches (Author) "Clouds like gusted shadows of the dead moved past the Lenten moon, drifting west toward Jersey..." (more)
Key Phrases: looming man, devilish man, plastic guns, Joe Brusher, Donna Lou, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Making his fiction debut, Tosches, a rock journalist (Hellfire), strikes gold with a brutal, corrosively funny portrait of New York's penny-ante hoods and professional lowlifes. Louie Brunellesches, a thuggish loan shark who can't even make a dishonest living, spends his days shaking down his sparse clientele, brooding about his estranged girlfriend Donna and drunkenly dreaming of just one big payoff. Out in Newark, his ancient Uncle Giovanni, a one-time big shot in Harlem's numbers game, plots a final blow against a crafty old racketeer known as Il Capraio. Meanwhile, Joe Brusher, a human death machine, is rapidly cutting a gory swath through the local underworld. Tosches's prose crackles with violence, degradation and reams of cheerful obscenity, but he has a sociologist's eye for the squalid territory of his characters, an unerring ear for their banter and invective, and affection for their mutated traditions and warped loyalties.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

This stunning Mafia thriller bears many of the hallmarks of Toschess celebrated nonfiction: an uncanny familiarity with the darkest chambers of the human heart and a wildly elastic prose style. As Cut Numbers unravels a diabolically elaborate scheme to fix New York States lottery, it reveals the Mafia that only insiders knownot the powerful, well-oiled crime machine of myth, but the messy day-to-day business of violent crime, pornography, gambling, and extortion.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (July 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316896586
• ISBN-13: 978-0316896580
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #611,761 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars damn good. tight. complelling. damn hot, November 26, 2003

By	Tom (Jersey City, NJ) - See all my reviews

I loved this book. I learned about Tosches through a Vanity Fair article and began reading some of his stuff - 'The Devil and Sonny Liston', 'Country', 'The Last Opium Den'. I found and read this novel after those and loved it. I've since given it to several friends and they loved it, or so I think. I don't think I care, but I would say they loved it based on their reactions and that I never got the books back. If you are afraid of dirty words or dirty deeds don't read this (the last reviewer would have benefited from this advice). Its real (I've live in NJ Hudson Ctny and NYC most of my life) and honest. Its also a tightly written story, which is lost on some b/c of the language and subject matter. F*** them - read it and see for yourself.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark story, beautifully written, August 18, 2005

By	William A. Adams (Bainbridge Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Gangsters and hoodlums, gambling, sex and drugs. It's dark, dirty, and not a very compelling story. But it is written so insightfully I find myself re-reading paragraphs just to savor the genuine humanity that has been captured.

"Nowhere"
"Well?"
"The old man's chin jutted out. He looked straight ahead and raised his palms, as if, having concluded an irrefutable argument of great eloquence, he awaited the roaring approval of the Roman Senate.
Each looked away from the other, and they let the tide of silence rise awhile, until it was almost as if what had been said had not been said."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good small-time crime story, January 29, 2007

By	S. Taylor (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nick Tosches' Cut Numbers is a mish-mash of (at least) three crime novel conventions--the "small time crook with a heart of gold", the "twist/double-twist/triple-twist con job", and "avenging of past transgressions". That doesn't make it bad--it's well written, and the plot is engaging if a bit tangled at times.
Some of the book doesn't work. Tosches development and use of Donna, the main characters love interest in the 'straight' world, is flat, and her character never seems to rise above the level of annoying and trite. It doesn't help that she gets some of the worst dialogue in the book. The overly macho tone of the book sometimes seems to border on parody, though I don't think that Tosches means it that way. Finally, some of the details are needlessly vulgar, leaving the reader to feel that Tosches is trying to make the story as scummy, as dirty, as he possibly can. To what end? It feels forced and doesn't really propel the story forward.
On the other hand, some of the book works great and is truly engrossing. Tosches' description of his main character, Louie, walking through neighborhoods, tending to a run-down bar, and collecting debts, are marvelously fun to read and simultaneously seem to reveal something about the characters and Tosches' love for the city and its culture. The scenes between Louie and his uncle are tender yet stoic, closely observed, and for me they seem utterly realistic--this is how a middle-aged man would interact with his old, somewhat legendary uncle. Those parts, for me, overcome many of the brutal tendencies Tosches displays elsewhere in the book, and make it a worthwhile read.