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Funny Boys

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

The acclaimed author of The War of the Roses takes on the New York of his childhood in this darkly funny comedy of errors about success, the mob, and finding true love.

Mikey Fine is a young man with a promising future in comedy. Attracted to the crowd applause at a lavish hotel casino in the Catskills, he gets a job as a tumler—part entertainer, part host, all funny boy. But he is naive to the more sinister side of his audience, made up of mobsters and other power players of New York's underbelly.

When Mutzie Feder, a Jean Harlow-esque gangster girlfriend with dreams of escaping her brutal reality, gets into the act with Mickey, the sparks begin to fly. But as their circumstances start catching up with them and the body counts start mounting, Mickey and Mutzie start angling for a way out. That, of course, isn't as easy as it sounds.

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    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this amusing novel of love, crime, and painful one-liners, Adler tells the story of Mickey Fine, social director at a Catskills summer resort that caters to organized crime. When he falls in with Mutzie Feder, a Mob hit man's girlfriend, the two will need to use all their wits to survive. Tom Weiner works the narrative, switching between an assertive edge and a smoother voice. He shines in the character voices, which are mostly vocal caricatures but are apropos for the story's setting and tone. Perhaps most impressive is Weiner's execution of the many one-line jokes throughout the book. He makes them amusing despite their corniness. L.E. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 21, 2008
      Set mostly in the Borscht Belt, Adler’s satiric take on 1930s New York gangsters falls short of the mark set by such other novels of his as The War of the Roses
      . Mickey Fine, an itinerant entertainer known as a tumler
      , has landed a gig at a Catskill hotel frequented by some of the leading thugs of the day. He falls for Mutzie Feder, a frustrated young woman from Brooklyn who’s ended up as the girlfriend of Pittsburgh Phil Strauss (aka Pep) after a makeover so she looks like Jean Harlow. As Fine’s feelings for Mutzie grow, he runs afoul of the jealous Pep and must develop a plan to free her from the life of prostitution the gangster has planned for her. At times Adler overdoes the Brooklynese dialogue (“Certain tings make me crazy. Like sweet liddle canaries who can’t keep der lips clamped shut”), while some readers may find the parodic element makes it hard to engage emotionally with the characters.

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

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Languages

  • English

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