What I am reading "The Funny Boys"

I love finding a new book unexpectantly at the library. One I have never heard about. A new (to me) author also. That is what happened on Thursday at my nearby branch library. I browsed the new books on a "special shelf" and came across a book. "The Funny Boys" by Warren Adler. Just by looking at the cover I could tell it was about two bit gangsters, flappers, and an entertainer. The simple black and white silhouettes on the grey and white background cover piqued my interest. I sat down and,as is my custom, read the summary and first few pages and found the book was about the 1930's era in a Catskill Mountain Hotel Casino where New York gangsters and their families spent time in the summers.

After reading the first chapter I decided that I would check it out. A good choice as I was highly entertained and finished "The Funny Boys" in two days.An enjoyable read. Not "War And Peace". Just good escapist reading. Some violence but a lot of humor.

I later found out that the author,Larry Adler,who is also a screen writer,has published several other novels, including one which was made into a movie, "The War Of The Roses" starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.


FROM AMAZON

"Mickey Fine---with a promising future in comedy. Attracted to the applause of the crowd 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 naïve to the more sinister side of his audience. They are mobsters and power players of New York's scandalous underbelly--men with whom Mickey had run-ins during his childhood.

When Mutzie Feder, a Jean Harlow-esque gangster girlfriend, gets into the act with dreams of escaping her brutal reality, sparks fly between her and Mickey. But as their circumstances start to catch up with them--and the body count starts mounting from the rough crowd they're running with--Mickey and Mutzie start angling for a way out. That, of course, isn't as easy as it sounds.

With film rights already optioned to a major producer, Funny Boys is a timeless love story and a sweeping American tale told as only Warren Adler could tell it. Smart, wry, and beautifully written, it's as unforgettable and authentic as anything Damon Runyon or Ring Lardner ever wrote, from a writer with a keen eye, an acute ear, and a very big heart."