tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58076890946101457472024-02-07T19:51:23.970-08:00Under the Eye of God: An Isaac Sidel Novel Blog TourTribute Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16959016294721462184noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807689094610145747.post-67016286057858495312012-08-23T14:13:00.000-07:002012-12-13T07:44:12.077-08:00<img align="middle" alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724214379051510706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmwOvGZYh_WsGuDLsDvqvCRJfKC3anrGt8cNEHtmcagp9S0JPMRiUk_OyWug3p0ynL67BlWaP6vVzdf8chcGZoktTQqOtJCOvriR3NUbfMZEU9Vp0OrIb5YNlkvBclZCKY7rinbi4Dl_1/s400/still+from+JC+Open+Road+Video+1.tiff" width="100%" /><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="color: #c59a23;"><span style="font-size: 180%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Blog Tour Schedule</span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />November 2012 - Confirmed Review Dates</span><br />
<br />
<b>November 1</b><br />
<b><a href="http://theysayimnuts.blogspot.com/2012/11/isaac-for-president.html" target="_blank">Crazed Mind</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b>and<br />
<a href="http://dadofdivas-reviews.blogspot.com/2012/11/book-review-under-eye-of-god.html" target="_blank">Dad of Divas</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<br />
<b>November 5</b><br />
<a href="http://freedomacres.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-eye-of-god-by-jerome-charyn.html" target="_blank"><b>Views from the Countryside</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 7</b><br />
<b><a href="http://alchemyscrawl.com/bookreview-under-the-eye-of-god-by-jerome-charyn/" target="_blank">Alchemy of Scrawl</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 8</b><br />
<a href="http://www.murderby4.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-eye-of-god-by-jerome-charyn.html" target="_blank"><b>Murder by 4</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 9</b><br />
<a href="http://andystraka.com/book-review-under-the-eye-of-god-by-jerome-charyn/" target="_blank"><b>Andy Straka</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 12</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/read-under-the-eye-of-god-by-jerome-charyn" target="_blank">Examiner.com</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 13</b><br />
<a href="http://dabalepublishing.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-new-isaac-sidel-novel-for-review.html" target="_blank"><b>D A Bale Publishing</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b>and</b><br />
<b><a href="http://etjrmbach.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-eye-of-god-jerome-charyn-4-stars.html" target="_blank">Mom in Love with Fiction </a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 15</b><br />
<b><a href="http://emmetmatheson.blogspot.ca/2012/11/under-eye-of-god-by-jerome-charyn.html" target="_blank">A Bulldozer with a Wrecking Ball Attached</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 17</b><br />
<a href="http://michaeljmccannsblog.blogspot.ca/2012/11/book-review-under-eye-of-god.html" target="_blank"><b>Michael J. McCann</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 20</b><br />
<a href="http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/11/jerome-charyn-under-eye-of-god-review.html" target="_blank"><b>Tribute Books Mama</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 21</b><br />
<a href="http://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-eye-of-god-by-jerome-charyn-book.html" target="_blank"><b>Jersey Girl Book Reviews</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 23</b><br />
<a href="http://www.celticladysreviews.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-eye-of-god-by-jerome-charyn-blog.html" target="_blank"><b>Celtic Lady's Reviews</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted spotlight</i><br />
<b>and</b><br />
<b><a href="http://literaryrr.blogspot.com/2012/11/blog-tourreview-under-eye-of-god-by.html" target="_blank">Literary R&R</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b>and</b><br />
<b><a href="http://dianneascroft.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/1492/" target="_blank">Ascroft, eh?</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 24</b><br />
<a href="http://www.mydevotionalthoughts.com/2012/11/tribute-books-under-eye-of-god-by.html" target="_blank"><b>My Devotional Thoughts</b></a><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<br />
<b>November 26</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.booksrusonline.com/2012/11/review-of-under-eye-of-god-by-jerome.html" target="_blank">Books R Us</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>November 30</b><br />
<b><a href="http://didibooksenglish.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/45-under-the-eye-of-god/" target="_blank">ReadEng. Didi's Press</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
and<br />
<b><a href="http://wormyhole.blogspot.com/2012/11/blog-tour-under-eye-of-god-by-jerome.html" target="_blank">The Wormhole</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted spotlight</i><br />
<br />
<b>December 5</b><br />
<b><a href="http://tributebooksreviews.blogspot.com/2012/12/jerome-charyn-under-eye-of-god-review.html" target="_blank">Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>December 13</b><br />
<b><a href="http://rhodesreview.com/?p=4120" target="_blank">Rhodes Review</a></b><br />
<i>click link to read the posted review</i>Tribute Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16959016294721462184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807689094610145747.post-62908343770088874562012-08-23T14:05:00.000-07:002012-09-19T14:51:29.493-07:00Read Chapter 1VICTORIES MEANT LITTLE TO ISAAC SIDEL. He despised election campaigns, with their pomp and panoply, their bitter battles. He went up to the Bronx without his Secret Service man. He loved to stand on some hill and look down upon the firebombed streets. All that desolation seemed to soothe him. The Big Guy needed a strong pinch of chaos. That meadowland of gutted build- ings had a strange beauty, like a diorama of brick teeth.<br />
<br />
He stood alone in Claremont Park and what he saw pricked his curiosity. Land surveyors and army engineers had climbed onto another hill with their tripods and magical measuring devices. This was no citizen’s group. An MP was guarding their equipment.<br />
<br />
The Big Guy hiked over to the army engineers. They saluted him. <br />
<br />
“Hello, Mr. President.”<br />
<br />
“Jesus,” Isaac said, “I’m not in line to become your commander in chief. You’re looking at the bottom half of the ticket.” <br />
<br />
The chief engineer smiled at him. There was no menace in his manner, no hidden darting of his eyes. <br />
<br />
“You’re still our president,” he said.<br />
<br />
“But what are you guys doing here? The Bronx isn’t much of a playground.”<br />
<br />
“This is a practice session, sir. My engineers have to get used to all terrain.”<br />
<br />
He produced a permit, signed by the NYPD. It still bothered Isaac—the cavalry invading Claremont Park. But he wouldn’t badger these engineers. They continued with their work.<br />
<br />
“Good-bye, Mayor Sidel.”<br />
<br />
He couldn’t disappear without creating a little storm of auto- graph seekers. He signed “Sidel” on bits of cardboard and the bills of baseball caps. A woman caressed his sleeve.<br />
<br />
“We don’t want Michael,” she whispered. “We want you.”<br />
<br />
Isaac skulked out of the park while the army engineers surveyed the South Bronx from their hill. His fans saluted him from fire escapes across the street. There was little Isaac could do about all the fury surrounding the election.<br />
<br />
It was known as the slaughter of ’88. Democrats battered Republicans, knocked them out of the box. President Calder Cottonwood couldn’t even capture his own state. He lost Arizona in the very same landslide. But the Democratic Party was riddled with rancor. Its stan- dard bearer, J. Michael Storm, the czar of baseball and president-elect, was sinking fast in the polls. He was a flagrant Casanova. One of his mistresses had surfaced since the election and demanded hush money from the Dems. The Party would have to pay and pay and pay.<br />
<br />
That wasn’t the worst of it. The Dems had to cover up J. Michael’s crooked land deals, the phony corporations he’d started with Clarice, his dipsomaniac of a wife. It’s lucky he had a running mate like Sidel, a former police commissioner who ran around with a Glock in his pants and captured criminals while he was on the campaign trail.<br />
<br />
The Party couldn’t have won the election without Sidel. He was much more popular than a president or a baseball czar. He should have resigned his mayor’s job, but the citizens of New York wanted Isaac to govern them until the day he ran off to DC. Michael had moved into the Waldorf with his transition team. But Isaac stole whatever little thunder J. Michael had left with his daily shenani- gans. And so the Dems had to get him out of Manhattan.<br />
<br />
Tim Seligman, the Party’s chief strategist, who’d been a fighter pilot in Nam, decided to send Isaac out on the road on some kind of quixotic quest. He could scream his head off about any subject under the sun as long as he didn’t mention J. Michael Storm. He was given his own touring bus, a gift from the Democratic National Committee. And Tim Seligman accompanied him as his babysitter. They flew to Dallas, where Isaac began his tour of Texas. He was the Democrats’ holy warrior. But he couldn’t ride with Marianna Storm, Michael’s twelve-year-old daughter, who was known as the Little First Lady. Voters had fallen in love with her during the election. She didn’t campaign with her father. She was always at Isaac’s side. The Big Guy needed a “consort.” Marianna had camped out with him at Gracie Mansion, because she couldn’t bear her mother and father, and had baked butternut cookies for Isaac and his staff. Now, Seligman banned her from Isaac’s bus, and Isaac turned on Tim, threatened to resign as the Democrats’ holy warrior unless he had the Little First Lady. But Tim had to deal with all the postelection flak. The Dems had a photo of Calder pissing in the Rose Garden and threatened to release it if the Republican machine continued to harp on Michael’s mistresses.<br />
<br />
“Isaac, it’s a war out there,” Tim said. “The bombs are flying. Do you want to ruin that little girl?”<br />
<br />
“By having her sit with me?”<br />
<br />
“The Republicans are concocting a very tall tale. And how can we fight it? Unless Marianna disappears, they’ll accuse you of having a Lolita complex.”<br />
<br />
“What Lolita?” <br />
<br />
“Isaac, it’s a smear. They’re talking pedophilia.” <br />
<br />
The future vice president jumped on Tim, rocked the entire bus. The
Secret Service had to separate them. The boss of Isaac’s detail, Martin Boyle, an Oklahoman who was six foot two, had to beg the Big Guy.<br />
<br />
“Sir, if I let you go, will you promise to behave?” <br />
<br />
“Not before I murder Tim.” <br />
<br />
“Then I’ll hold you here until kingdom come.” <br />
<br />
“Perfect. I won’t have to tour Texas.”<br />
<br />
“And President Cottonwood will jump on our backs,” Tim said. “He’s behind the smear. We went deep into Calder’s pockets. We captured his astrologer.”<br />
<br />
“Calder has an astrologer? He’s like fucking Adolf Hitler.” <br />
<br />
“He can’t make a move without her. He’s beside himself.” <br />
<br />
“What’s her name?” Isaac had to ask. <br />
<br />
“Markham, Mrs. Amanda Markham.”<br />
<br />
“And how did you capture her, huh, Timmy? The Prez must have guarded this Amanda with his life.”<br />
<br />
“She walked.”<br />
<br />
“Of her own free will? That’s a peach. She comes into our camp and offers her services, and you don’t smell a rat? What’s the matter with you? Calder’s crazed, so he lends us his favorite spy.”<br />
<br />
“Isaac, we’re not dummies. We checked her out. We have tapes of her with the Prez.”
The Big Guy wasn’t amused. “You’ve been bugging the White House? Boyle, did you hear that?”<br />
<br />
“No,” said Isaac’s Secret Service man. “I’m not allowed to listen to your conversations, sir. I’m only here to protect your life.”<br />
<br />
“I can’t believe it. Nothing makes sense. . . . And what did you learn from the tapes, Timmy Boy?”<br />
<br />
“A lot. About Calder’s pedophilia play. He’s been doctoring pho- tographs. Of you and Marianna. And that’s when Mrs. Markham started to rebel.”<br />
<br />
“Why?”<br />
<br />
“It disgusted her. She’s a big fan of yours. The Prez found out, and he broke her nose. That’s when she walked.”<br />
<br />
“Where is this Mata Hari?” “On the bus, and she’s not Mata Hari.”<br />
<br />
“She climbed aboard, and you never told me?”<br />
<br />
“I wanted Amanda to study you without your being aware of her. She’s an astrologer, the best in the business. She’s preparing your chart. She can help us plot our future . . . yours and the Party’s.”<br />
<br />
“Damn you,” Isaac said. “You steal Marianna and saddle me with a fucking star clerk.”<br />
<br />
“Who’s a star clerk?”<br />
<br />
Isaac had to crane his neck, or he couldn’t have discovered the source of that shrill cry. A roly-poly woman was perched at the back of the bus with a bandage on her nose. She hadn’t entered his field of vision until now. He should have noticed her. He’d been the Commish.<br />
<br />
“Sidel, do you have a sore throat?” <br />
<br />
He blinked at the fat witch. “How did you guess?” <br />
<br />
“Taureans have a lot of problems with their throats. . . . ” <br />
<br />
“Does Calder have the same affliction?” <br />
<br />
“I never discuss my other clients,” she said. <br />
<br />
“But you did talk to Tim about Marianna, and he took her from me.” <br />
<br />
“That’s different. The child was in danger, and so were you. Sidel, I’m your survival kit.” <br />
<br />
“I doubt that. You were Calder’s clairvoyant . . . until he broke your nose.” <br />
<br />
“But I couldn’t save him. Nobody can.” <br />
<br />
“Why? Was the moon in Virgo the moment he was born? And it captured his capriciousness?” <br />
<br />
“You’re making fun of me, Sidel.” <br />
<br />
“Yes, ma’am. Marianna’s the only moon I’ll ever need.”<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
HE’D CREATED MERLIN ON ACCOUNT of Marianna. She couldn’t function near her mom and dad, with all their feuds. She sulked like a diva, and Isaac had to do something. He brought her up to the badlands of the Bronx. They boycotted Robert Moses’ Cross Bronx Express, which had ruined neighborhood after neighborhood, rip- ping into the Bronx’s fabric, destroying it a patch at a time. Isaac couldn’t save the borough, but he could rescue some of its kids. So he started Merlin, a school away from school, where the brainiest kids of a firebombed Bronx could meet with the best little wiz- ards of Manhattan right inside the mayor’s mansion. And Isaac had recruited Marianna—to enrich his own life, along with the wayward boys and girls of the Bronx. She began spending more time with him at Gracie Mansion. She ironed the Big Guy’s shirts, took over the kitchen, and baked butternut cookies. He couldn’t have survived without her. He also pitied Marianna, who had such a dismal mom and dad.<br />
<br />
Now he was with that witch, Mrs. Markham, in the middle of Texas. He had his Glock and his own sixth sense. But he couldn’t understand why Timmy was with him in a yellow campaign bus and hadn’t returned to J. Michael, who stumbled wherever he went.<br />
<br />
“Michael needs you, Tim.”<br />
<br />
“He’s beyond repair,” the strategist said. “My one consolation is that Calder sank faster than he did. It’s a first in American politics. A presidential race where both guys couldn’t light the simplest fucking fire. If you get stuck in some scandal, Michael will disappear with the Waldorf. That’s why I couldn’t let Calder lock you into a Lolita complex. I had to grab Marianna.”<br />
<br />
They’d arrived in San Antone, where Tim had scheduled a press conference in the old cattlemen’s bar at the Menger Hotel, across from the Alamo. The Dems wanted to turn Isaac into Davy Crock- ett, tear off his Manhattan skin. But Isaac wouldn’t fiddle with his own temperament, play some lost son of San Antonio. He wouldn’t wear cowboy boots, like other politicians, attend horse shows, or spit into a solid-gold spittoon. He talked about the blight of inner city schools in the ’80s, the eleven-year-old pistoleros who worked for drug lords and shot rival gangs to pieces, because they couldn’t be tried in open court.<br />
<br />
“I don’t like coca kings hiding behind the skirts of children.”<br />
<br />
“Then what do you like?” one of the reporters asked. “This is Crockett country. Would you hamper us with a gun-control bill?”<br />
<br />
“I might,” Isaac said, “if I could get rid of eleven-year-old assassins.”<br />
<br />
“This isn’t Brooklyn. Our kids don’t play with guns. We’d slap them silly, sir.”<br />
<br />
The fat witch bumped into Isaac. “Make it short,” she whispered. <br />
<br />
“Christ, Mrs. Markham. Are you my chief of staff?” <br />
<br />
“The moon is in the middle of two houses. That’s dangerous. You’re on the cusp of something I don’t like at all. Scatter as fast as you can.” <br />
<br />
“Run away from the Alamo? This is Texas, dear.” <br />
<br />
“Don’t patronize me,” Mrs. Markham hissed and dug an elbow into Isaac’s back . . . as some crazy shooter appeared in the crowd. This shooter had caught Martin Boyle and his Secret Service men with their pants down. They’d been foraging through the Menger Bar for possible kooks and had landed on their own blind side. The shooter had been difficult to spot. He was dressed as a military man, with a silver eagle on his shoulder. But he had a thick, heavy tongue and eyes shot with blood. His mouth sat crooked on his face, as if someone had sewn it there.<br />
<br />
“I’m the eye of god,” the shooter shouted, clutching a silver Colt with the longest barrel Isaac had ever seen. The Big Guy couldn’t grab his own Glock. He would have brought pandemonium to the Menger, might have started a massacre. He shielded Mrs. Markham and a little girl, who’d come to seek his autograph, thrust them out of the line of fire, and leapt on the shooter, who squeezed his trigger once, clipped Isaac, grazed him under the arm. The chandeliers rang like celestial chimes. But why, why did Isaac think of those army engineers on their hill in the Bronx just as he was about to topple? It had to be a sinister sign.<br />
<br />
“The Citizen’s down, the Citizen’s down,” the Secret Service men sang into their button mikes. “The Citizen” was Isaac’s code name inside the Service. They’d already captured the shooter; fourof them, including Boyle, were lying on top of Isaac. Boyle’s own cheeks were covered in Isaac’s blood.<br />
<br />
“Boyle,” Isaac whispered, “will you get the fuck off? I can’t breathe.” <br />
<br />
And then he blacked out.Tribute Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16959016294721462184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807689094610145747.post-13948786731065445362012-08-23T14:03:00.000-07:002012-08-23T14:52:23.272-07:00Isaac Sidel Reviews"Charyn has trained his prose and makes it perform tricks. It's a New York prose, street-smart, sly and full of lurches, like a series of subway stops on the way to hell."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">— New York Times</span><br /><br />"Packed with manic energy, peopled with bizarre characters and outrageous situations. [Charyn] sounds like a ... Jewish Philip Marlowe."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">— Chicago Sun-Times</span><br /><br />"These books constitute the highest kind of novelistic art ... absolutely unique among contemporary writers."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">— Los Angeles Times</span><br /><br />“Jerome Charyn is one of the most important writers in American literature.”<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">— </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Michael Chabon</span><br /><br />"The joyous weirdness of Charyn's idiosyncratic New York City can't be described-it must be experienced. Nor can Isaac Sidel, Charyn's one-of-a-kind protagonist and former Commissioner of the NYPD, be understood on brief acquaintance. Here, in the fourth absorbing book of Charyn's Odessa quartet (following Montezuma's Man), it is the mid 1980s and Sidel has been elected mayor, with a month to go before taking office. Subject to his usual paranoia, the former Commish is hiding out in homeless shelters under an assumed name. Now bums are being killed, each one labeled with Sidel's fake name. The murders are claimed by a racist gang who call themselves the Knickerbocker Boys and use the names of Sidel's beloved 19th-century baseball stars. That a few of these white racists might be black is the sort of anomaly that Sidel takes in stride. Some trails lead to a Times Square porn palace where Romanian orphans are made available for pedophiles and where the sultry Rita works. Perhaps she can cure Isaac of his bitter love for Margaret Tolstoy, who has a bad habit of sleeping with Isaac's enemies. Other trails lead to the racists, who may have infiltrated an organization dedicated to historic-building preservation. Table tennis and baseball are near religions, and as always there are too many characters to track (someone should write a Sidel glossary). Puzzle-loving readers should take careful note of Charyn's use of perhaps and may, practicing Sidelian vigilance-the road to Gracie Mansion is loaded with potholes."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- Publishers Weekly</span><br /><br />"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:inherit;">Jerome Charyn wrote an inventive 10-book series featuring Isaac Sidel, an NYPD captain who later becomes deputy police commissioner and the city's mayor. I started reading these books after a guy whose reading tastes I like described them as "very hip, off the wall, and full of jazz-like riffs of words." They won't appeal to everyone; in addition to its surreal quality, the writing almost explodes off the page with vitality. Adult language and sexual content from the git-go. A lot of slang; Charyn likes words. They should be read in order. (You do know about </span><a href="http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:inherit;">Stop, You're Killing Me!</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:inherit;"> don't you? You can find series order there.) Start with </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;font-family:inherit;" >Blue Eyes<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">,</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> the first book in the Isaac Quartet, in which NYPD Detective Manfred Cohen butts heads with his mentor, Deputy Chief Inspector Sidel. In the second, </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;font-family:inherit;" >Marilyn the Wild<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">,</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> Charyn examines what led to the events in </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:inherit;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Eyes</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">"<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- ReadMeDeadly.com</span><br /></span></span></b></span>Tribute Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16959016294721462184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807689094610145747.post-72491631115832719272012-08-23T14:02:00.000-07:002012-08-23T14:51:39.020-07:00Series Review<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tangled Web UK</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.twbooks.co.uk/crimescene/charyn.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lost Genius of Jerome Charyn</span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">by Peter Walker</span><br /><br />Although I am not normally given to making overstatements I'll make an exception here: the Isaac Sidel books of Jerome Charyn are great crime books. They are neglected classics, which deserve reading and re-reading, and they have, in the course of the last twenty years, literally, transformed the genre. I could go on but I won't. It is simply my intention here to get you to read the books.<br /><br />The opening book in the series, <b><i>"Blue Eyes"</i></b>, blew me away. It starts like this: <i>"Shotgun Coen"</i>. Something about those first two words gave me a jolt. A friend gave me the book just after Bloomsbury had reissued it. Other than the fact that Charyn was touring the UK with Walter Mosely (this was in 1993) I knew nothing about him or his writing. The opening few pages stunned me. Manfred Coen's stoolie Arnold the Spic has spotted Chino Reyes in Brummy's Grill. Chino is upset with Coen - the <i>Blue Eyes</i> of the title - because Coen had slapped him down in front of some people he was supposed to protect after Coen had busted an illegal card game. Chino has taken to wearing a red wig and threatening Coen. Added to this he is the main suspect in the taxi murders. The other Bulls in the squad hate Coen because, being a pretty boy, he got the glamour jobs and had the First Dep. as his Rabbi, the fallen from grace Isaac Sidel. Worse the Bulls suspect Coen of being a spy and hope he'll return from Brummy's with a hole in his head. The Bulls tease Arnold and sneer at Coen, who they describe as Chino's cousin.<br /><br />These first few pages had an immediate impact and I was hooked. But <b><i>Blue Eyes</i></b> continued to surprise me. Chino Reyes is in the employ of the Guzmanns, a tribe of Peruvian pickpockets who are moving into Isaac's territory. Coen grew up with them. Child brides are being kidnapped and are turning up in Mexico. Isaac sends Coen to investigate when the daughter of millionaire Vander Child goes missing. Vander is in hock to the Guzmanns and Reyes is pimping his other daughter, Odette. Coen has to team up with Reyes to go to Mexico. Caught between his childhood loyalties and Isaac, Coen is buffeted and manipulated. He's never quite sure what's going on and makes his final stand in Schiller's Ping-Pong Club - the only place he can make any sense of the world. Chino Reyes turns up to frighten him and ends up killing Coen almost by accident. Little is resolved but the emotional impact of the book rooted me to the floor.<img src="http://www.twbooks.co.uk/crimescene/blueeyesp.jpg" align="RIGHT" height="175" width="115" /><br /><br />Charyn wrote <b><i>Blue Eyes</i></b> in 1973. Already an established writer and professor in English with six books to his name he read Ross McDonald's <b><i>The Galton Case</i></b>. He was immediately struck by what he called McDonald's "<i>particular craft"</i>, his ability to build structures into a "<i>wild masonry"</i> with "<i>sad strange histories that crept between the tight closed spaces</i>." Charyn decided to write his own crime novel.<br /><br />He had been a "<i>body builder and ping pong freak"</i> in his youth. His sense of the underworld came from the pool halls and street gangs of the Bronx. He was something of an extortionist by the age of 12 but quickly grew out of the habit and by 14 was "<i>studying French irregular verbs at the High School of Music and Art"</i>. Charyn's brother, Harvey, was an NYPD Detective. So Charyn went to the wilds of Brooklyn and became the chronicler of Harvey and the other Brooklyn detectives. He seemed to see his brother afresh. Manfred Coen became "<i>an odd amalgam"</i> of Harvey and Charyn, a Detective who preferred the rituals of ping pong and who had Harvey's "<i>sad gentle ways"</i>, who was isolated and adrift in the badlands.<br /><br /><b><i>Blue Eyes</i></b> was intended as a one off but Charyn wasn't able to let either Coen or Isaac go. They were both far too compelling. So he brought Coen back from the dead and set his next book, <b><i>Marilyn The Wild</i></b> at an earlier time in Coen's life. This chronological switch is almost deliberately confusing.(As an aside, whilst Bloomsbury did a great job reissuing the Isaac books they didn't half make a mess of describing the order they should be read in). Isaac becomes a more compelling character as his love for his wild and beautiful daughter drives him to extremes. Marilyn is in love with Coen but so is Isaac - he can't bear to lose either of them. Isaac is a coward when it comes to his daughter. Charyn begins to weave a myth around Coen's death. Did he die because of Isaac's jealousies? Whilst you are pondering this the book tears off in all sorts of directions. The Lollipop Gang have it in for Isaac and want him dead. Their crazed vendetta leads Isaac into his past. When his mother is attacked his enemies within the NYPD move on him as well.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.twbooks.co.uk/crimescene/educationpsilverp.jpg" align="LEFT" height="175" width="115" /><b><i>The Education of Patrick Silver</i></b> continues Charyn's compelling vision. Isaac's shifting war with the Guzmanns is getting him nowhere. Isaac went undercover and turned up in their candy store on Boston Road (in <b><i>Blue Eyes</i></b>). This got him nowhere and got Coen killed. Papa Guzmann fed Isaac some blood sausage and Isaac inherited a worm from them. The worm becomes Isaac's conscience - or his guilt over Coen. The Guzmanns have employed Patrick Silver, an ex-NYPD cop, an Irish Jew who can't wear socks and who lives in his father's decaying synagogue. There is no joy for Isaac as he forces the Guzmanns to leave New York. There are no simple solutions for Charyn.<br /><br />Still Charyn was unable to finish his history of Isaac Sidel. <b><i>Secret Isaac</i></b> is devoted entirely to him. Now the Police Commissioner, he's sadder and alone. He only has the worm for company. Police corruption, deeply entrenched within the NYPD, becomes Isaac's obsession when he comes across Annie Powell, a prostitute scarred with a D.<br /><br />Searching for who marked her leads him to Dermot McBride who in turn leads him back to the heart of the NYPD. Once Isaac tried to help Dermot by recommending him for a scholarship but Dermot became an enforcer for a corrupt cop, keeping street gangs in check and then milking profits from prostitution.<br /><br />Charyn had gone to Harvey to gather material for an "<i>uncomplicated crime novel"</i> but had ended up with four books about Isaac Sidel and his tapeworm. "<i>For me"</i> Charyn wrote "<i>the four books comprise a vast confusion of fathers and sons"</i>. The books were a hit. Charyn became the celebrity of Brooklyn Homicide, the chronicler of their stories. Harvey, however, begrudged the complications of the last three Isaac books. He preferred "<i>the purity of "Blue Eyes". </i>After all, Coen came from the Bronx like him.<br /><br />Charyn's original intention was to write a quartet. The best analysis I've come across is Mike Woolf's aptly named <b><i>Exploding The Genre</i></b>. With the Isaac books, he argues, Charyn brilliantly conveys the complexities and contradictions of urban disorder. Crime and criminality become metaphors in which social disorder and evil are perceived as the norm. Indeed the books are about New York as much as anything. Charyn represents the Big City as "a <i>tribal society, populated by warring ethnic communities....these groups are deeply intertwined in a system that blurs the boundaries between goodness evil, detective and criminal"</i>. In a crazy world Isaac achieves, at best, a temporary illusion of control.<br /><br />After a long hiatus Charyn returned to Isaac with <b><i>The Good Policeman</i></b> . Charyn's intention was to write a second <b><i>Isaac Quartet</i></b> for the nineties. There is a shift in emphasis away from the "<i>magic"</i> of the earlier books and toward a realist and almost political vision. Isaac becomes central to this. His fate and New York's survival become intertwined. Throughout <b><i>The Good Policeman, Maria's Girls, Montezuma's Man </i></b>and <b><i>Little Angel Street</i></b> Isaac is at war with rival factions within the City. To this end the books become more plot driven although Charyn was still able to surprise and perplex with his writing.<br /><br />Charyn had already introduced the idea of New York as being central to his books. <b><i>Secret Isaac </i></b>was as much about saving New York as the NYPD : "<i>The Bronx is dying, soon the edges of Manhattan will go then you'll have towers on the East Side with machine guns in the lobby...there were more arsonists in the Bronx than grocers"</i>. With <b><i>The Good Policeman</i></b> things are getting worse: "<i>Isaac had to contend with the new Indian countries of Brunswick and the South Bronx. He couldn't reclaim the schools, which had become holding pens for moon children, kids who lived like marauders and maddened wolves. Nine year olds with knives.</i>." Chaos is threatening.<br /><br />Woody Haut's excellent <b><i>Neon Noir</i> </b>puts Charyn in the context of modern urban reality. In <b><i>Maria's Girls </i></b>for example, Haut says that Charyn continues to map New York's disintegration (what Charyn calls, in his deeply personal book <b><i>Metropolis</i></b> the "<i>Manhattanisation" </i>of New York - i.e. the process whereby New York was and is sanitised into a safe place for wealthy white people, losing its diversity and vitality along the way). The reality of contemporary urban life makes crime inevitable. Maria Montalban, the superintendent of Lower East side schools, adds to her budget by selling drugs: "<i>We sell drugs so children can eat"</i>. The whole system is rotten so who's the real criminal, the real killer?<img src="http://www.twbooks.co.uk/crimescene/isaacquartet.jpg" align="RIGHT" height="169" width="135" /><br /><br />In the end no one can control such madness and lawlessness. In a typical response to this realisation Isaac sides with the DeAngelis Family not only against the rival Rubino clan but against Isaac's rival LeComte, from the Justice Dept (and F.B.I.). For Isaac the Mafia are inevitable and at least they operate with a moral code the "<i>Pink Commish"</i> can accept: "<i>All it needs are citizens who can't get what they want from City Government because it's too involved in feeding its own belly, and tickling its own back"</i>. LeComte wants to "<i>off"</i> the Mafia but only (according to some crazed plan of his own) because he wants to control New York. His backing of the Rubino clan is a cynical move to this end. Isaac cannot allow this. "<i>All it needs are citizens who can't get what they want from City Government because it's too involved in feeding its own belly, and tickling its own back</i>."<br /><br />In all this Isaac becomes an ever more compelling character. In one exchange between Isaac and Issy Wasser, the DeAngelis mallemed, they argue about who was best - Stalin or Trotsky. Isaac has long since been called the "<i>Pink Commish"</i>. For him Stalin was a realist, a survivor. Trotsky, Issy contends, would have saved the poets. Siding with the Family is a dangerous business however, but "<i>That's why he was such a good policeman. He liked to dance at the very edge of violence</i>."<br /><br />With <b><i>The Good Policeman</i></b> Isaac starts his return to some kind of family life. He is no longer a "<i>father figure"</i>. Margaret Tolstoy, Isaac's lost childhood love reappears but, naturally, she is an agent for LeComte. In the books that follow Isaac and Marilyn reconcile themselves and Marilyn marries one of Isaac's "<i>angels"</i>, Joe Barbarossa. But there is a price to pay. As Isaac rises up the political ladder toward Mayor he may find some peace but at what price? Having been "<i>glocked</i> " he loses the worm: "<i>The worm was a moralist, the worm had encouraged Isaac's descent into the unknown, the worm was like Shakespeare, breathing melodies wherever Isaac happened to go. He was miserable without the worm</i>."<br /><br />Perhaps Charyn is writing another Quartet. In <b><i>El Bronx</i></b> Isaac is drawn into the dangerous and lethal world of politics. This is a world which makes the dangers of the streets look simple and easy to understand. Papa Cassidy, a millionaire with political influence, tries to have Isaac killed before becoming his campaign treasurer: "<i>That's how alliances were made in New York"</i>. Whilst the Bronx is dying millionaire Baseball players are on strike and there's some very dirty money tied up in rejuvenation programs with a whole bunch of corrupt cops and politicos are manoeuvring for a leg up the greasy pole. <b><i>Citizen Sidel</i></b> takes Isaac further as he is nominated for "<i>Vice Prez"</i>. Drawn back into investigating some very nasty cops who keep a clean precinct for very dubious reasons (a criticism of Zero Tolerance?) Charyn is still able to dazzle and surprise.<br /><br />I've only skimmed the surface of Charyn's Isaac books. They have to be experienced and my aim here is to lead you into these books but after that you're on your own. Unfortunately most of the books are out-of-print and the last two haven't got a UK publisher but don't let this deter you (try one of the Internet book searches - for example: www.abebooks.com or www.interloc.com). I'll leave the last word to Charyn: "<i>New York is my heartland and the heart of New York is crime. It is into this maddening heart that I have tried to enter not as a sociologist, not as a judge, but as a participant in the city's merciless magic"</i>.<p><b>Notes/References.</b></p><b></b> <p>1. All the biographical information comes from two sources: Charyn's own introduction to the <b><i>Black Box</i></b> edition of the first four Isaac books (Published by Zomba it is now out of print but should you come across it, it is worth buying for this alone) and from <b><i>Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers</i></b></p><p>2. <b><i>Exploding The Genre: The Crime Fiction of Jerome Charyn</i></b> in <b><i>American Crime Fiction </i></b>Ed B Doherty. St Martin's Press 1988</p><p>3. <b><i>Neon Noir</i></b> Woody Haut. Chap 6 <i>From Mean Streets to Dream Streets</i>. Serpents Tail 1999</p><p>4. <b><i>Metropolis: New York as Myth, Marketplace and Magical Land</i></b> Jerome Charyn. Avon Books 1986</p><p>5. This article, now substantially rewritten, first appeared in <b><i>Crimetime</i></b> Issue 9.</p><p>The books: (Note: This is the order they were written in and, I would argue, the order they should be read in.) </p><p><b><i>Blue Eyes</i></b> 1975. Published UK Bloomsbury 1992 </p><p><b><i>Marilyn The Wild</i></b> 1976. Pub ditto 1990 </p><p><b><i>The Education of Patrick Silver </i></b>1976. Pub ditto 1992 </p><p><b><i>Secret Isaac </i></b>1978. Pub. ditto 1992 </p><p><b><i>The Good Policeman</i></b> Pub. ditto 1990 </p><p><b><i>Maria's Girls </i></b>Serpents Tail/Mask Noir 1993 </p><p><b><i>Montezuma's Man</i></b> Pub US Mysterious Press1994 </p><p><b><i>Little Angel Street</i></b> ditto 1994 </p><p><b><i>El Bronx </i></b>ditto 1997 </p><p><b><i>Citizen Sidel</i></b> ditto 1999 </p><p>Short: <b><i>Young Isaac</i></b> in <b><i>The Armchair Detective</i></b> (New York), Summer 1990.</p>Tribute Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16959016294721462184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807689094610145747.post-60112211236785647072012-08-23T14:01:00.000-07:002012-08-23T14:50:50.192-07:00Animated Series Pilot<a href="http://tropicaltoxic.blogspot.com/2010/12/hard-apple-in-development.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hard Apple :: in development</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hard Apple - an animated series based on the cult crime novels of Jerome Charyn</span><br /><br />At it's center is Isaac Sidel, a brainy Manhattan detective, and a gritty mix of characters bringing to life the five boroughs of New York City and its many dissonant sub-cultures. It's about family and tribal allegiances and how the bonds that tie can, in an instant, turn into people trying to slit each other’s throats. It is a universe riddled with risk and betrayal as everyone desperately tries to master the art of simply staying alive.<br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20dwH0zV9-IXWtuVhNNZF0bIg0xazEBNGE98x2vh7Ih2S6D-MHOeH7SfbiRXEdTqZ92PXuXKAi5XQ1ybQWLnpilraHLXH6YI1A8YcwLlJW72eQch7wk-Nc-CTI94rYitqPSLDvt-ECrg/s1600/morgueSk3.jpg" width="100%" /><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW2oaU8qhyqBi3fowLg6uvxGbKtOwY1dfXH3zSxWnp8qmEkDoFuRQZY-BemQmdNSDNPsft4DvOqLHONlmkghkHR-gQ-hG2S-J7B91WuCwYYzgujWzDuE_PAZ0UEzitjjIM_-ljIpf527E/s1600/characters.jpg" width="100%" /><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQr_-x5lBf6BX_kCUBMT8OrI3xhG9EjX9fUX3CS9ZO1MKsBjPV4NmOZt7pHbRavv3jHSBCGVVB8tsIUVmk-_aEwC6WMY_wjw9C-GEH1FBF2lKHAPG60URMjyg9UQtaXsUhcWoWX1wstC8/s1600/Fantan.jpg" width="100%" /><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NWyaPEoNmp7fEkC7aCJM56b97TI5wNB43hwV8ptGs372SerRK73kDf7qHB7lSEbjFXkd4-0d1lb3Ke6a-MNYFWHWYoXGc-FaRBqdcC02tKd6xPC_mOknVpx_q2MQ1KiwOao-RwP6DVs/s1600/candyCol72B.jpg" width="100%" /><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83y4oCs4V0latF3bUWKTGQXRfLvuo8kC2Cays882u8ZqyBLEB3VrTXERKVgPfSX9v010FogZAkugnIsmA2M7B3oY88UJ890sE_YTeG2qUN3wjDJox31QngZ_im4AC2KBwpS9LT4ELwxc/s1600/morgColB72.jpg" width="100%" /><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-O8mVtWh6YBBeWSOZ_fDbnQ09TBJVeLUm9Js9pJTZ6VMbosgbg3Jvm7mH1h9ZkswC5eQ8VTLw-E1RLAO-jfGmXSX_WSpgkMfA6lqaXonwvKd9yBuw5st_SSLXg3R0YCJ4sjRIqE-sHc/s1600/pingpong72C.jpg" width="100%" /><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSo94baWIITDjYBtBcVmz-drJjiYQF9DGo5Gf7fEUW-yG4jBW37gERvg53dMOAnulzHOzscWRNXIvXgyOYaSJ_8cIqi-Y-ElDqIR6qNtn7EQmzMvCceND-gNxgABUZjGrH8J7cIYoPb4U/s1600/shower72reviseE.jpg" width="100%" />Tribute Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16959016294721462184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807689094610145747.post-34666525797597296882012-08-22T14:49:00.000-07:002012-09-20T08:17:35.660-07:00Animated Video <object><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param><param name="movie" value="https://www.facebook.com/v/10151163398697480"></param><embed src="https://www.facebook.com/v/10151163398697480" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>Tribute Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16959016294721462184noreply@blogger.com0