My Ride with Gus - Softcover

Carillo, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340666617 ISBN 13: 9780340666616

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1996

Synopsis

Driving across the Brooklyn Bridge with a body in the trunk, Jimmy Gambar has the feeling that his brother, Gus, known as "The Ghost" in the neighborhood, is taking him back to 16th-century Sicily. Long estranged from his family, Jimmy's on an all-night ride into his past with a brother who, for all he knows, might save him or kill him. Jimmy's about to find out once and for all who loves him best.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

A second helping from TV-producer Carillo (Shepherd Avenue, 1986) in which fate, confusions, and simple mishap drag us--along with his yuppie wannabee hero--across the bridge into Brooklyn, where the secrets of one man's life are laid bare. ``Jimmy Gambar was not a man who often ignored his instincts, but when he did, he pulled the plug on the phone and hung a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door to his better judgment.'' Jimmy, in fact, is a bit of a dweeb: A Manhattan architect ashamed of his working- class Italian origins, he changed his name (from ``Gambuzza'') and cut all ties with his family once he left Brooklyn for college. Since then, however, he's gone from strength to strength and now, somewhere in his 30s, is about to be made a junior partner. This is precisely when his troubles begin. First, he argues with his girlfriend and ends things by breaking up on the very night, New Year's Eve, on which he'd meant to propose. Then he picks up some random nasty girl at a bar and accidentally kills her at his place. Now what to do? Somehow Jimmy has the presence of mind to call his wiseguy brother Gus, and the two of them set about the unpleasant task of finding a place to dump the stiff. This means Brooklyn, of course, where the two are helped along the way by a rogues' gallery of hoodlums, priests, old girlfriends, and Mom herself--who's still living in the old place in Bay Ridge, waiting to welcome Jimmy back to the fold. In the end, the dawn brings more than the first day of a new year--it brings a new life for Jimmy, who sees that he can start over only by starting again. Predictable and strangely flat: All the ``characters'' can be recognized a block away, and the there's-no-place-like-home theme creaks beneath the heavy burden of stereotype. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Nothing is what it seems in this tight, funny and refreshing 1990s take on A Christmas Carol. The Scrooge here is architect Jimmy Gambar, favored by both a successful career and the love of a beautiful woman. But after Jimmy's egomania sparks a lovers' quarrel on New Year's Eve, and a potential one-night stand drops dead in his apartment, he encounters his very own ghost of days gone by: his big brother Gus "The Ghost" Gambuzza, a reputed gangster. In an odyssey that takes him from Soho through Brooklyn, Jimmy confronts the past he's been avoiding for most of his adult life. Carillo neatly balances the quirky and sometimes hilarious events of the long night with artfully arranged flashbacks. Through conversations, memories and Jimmy's subtly portrayed point of view, the members of the Gambuzza family grow and become more complex, as does Jimmy himself. What started out as a wild ride to get rid of a corpse ends up as a touching and believable story of family love and survival, a testament to Carillo's storytelling abilities.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0340666617
• ISBN 13: 9780340666616
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288