A Man Of Respect - Hardcover

London, Darryl

4.49

55 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081840390X ISBN 13: 9780818403903

Publisher: Stuart, 1986

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Book by London, Darryl

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Review:

The son of poor Italian immigrants living in Brooklyn, Bephino Menesiero ("Bepy" as he comes to be known) grows up fast. At the age of fifteen he becomes a hit-man. That same year, he is seduced and initiated into the art of lovemaking by a voluptuous redhead twice his age. Embracing values of respect and loyalty as emphasized in his Sicilian heritage and upbringing, Bephino's life is soon filled with bloody experiences and sacrificed lives as he upholds his family's code of honor. His quest for wealth and respect takes him from Brooklyn's Bensonhurst to Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive, from New Orleans to Mexico City, from Las Vegas to Wall Street. Unhesitant about dispatching victims when required by those to whom allegiance has been sworn, murder becomes merely a dispassionate job performed with ruthless efficiency. Along the way, Bephino's development from youthful killer to a man desperately seeking tranquility, is viewed against the richly colored backdrop of the people and places of the underworld. With crackling dialogue and hard-bitten realistic prose, A Man Of Respect readers with an authenticity of Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" or the non-fiction chiller, "The Valachi Papers". Highly recommended! -- Midwest Book Review

From Publishers Weekly:

This book rings true only in the sense that the characters sound as banal as wire-tap transcripts. Fifteen-year-old Bephino ("Bepy") Menesiero catches the kindly eye of Don Emilio, boss of all bosses, in the 1940s. The don gives Bepy his first hit assignment, which he executes with style. And for the next 40 years it's ever upward for Bepy, representing the Mob in shaking down hero sandwich shops and bookmaking operations, infiltrating hotels and casinos, a Mexican tchotchke factory and the stock market. He also does the occasional murder job. Bepy's hits are always imaginative"exotic," as he calls them, but readers will find them flatly described in a sea of stultifying cliches. None of the characters come to lifeall sound boringly alikeand by the time Bepy is annointed as don of his own small crime Family in the 1970s, few readers will care. London (a pseudonym) promises a sequel; one hopes for less verbiage and more action. 40,000 first printing; $40,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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