Welcome to our stop on one of Mandy's favorite author's virtual book blog tour: Blue Eyes by Jerome Charyn. Tribute Books is promoting this tour in celebration of his upcoming ebook re-releases for Open Road Media of all ten of Charyn's cult crime novels starring Isaac Sidel. These novels have also just been picked up by HBO for an adult animated series pilot.
To visit the blog tour's official site, click here.
Jerome Charyn's Bio:
Jerome Charyn (born May 13, 1937) is an award-winning American author. With nearly 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life. Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature."
New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published 30 novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were name New York Times Book of the Year. Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture.
Charyn was Distinguished Professor of Film Studies at the American University of Paris until he left teaching in 2009.
In addition to his writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top 10 percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn lives in Paris and New York City.
Click the following links to visit:
Book Info:
ISBN #: 0-380-00882-3
Page Count: 236
Copyright: 1974
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
First Avon Book Printing was in January 1977
Book Trailer:
Book Summary:
(Provided by Tribute Books)
A cop and his disgraced mentor attempt to bust a white slavery ring.
Before Isaac Sidel adopts him, Manfred Coen is a mutt. A kid from the Bronx, he joins the police academy after his father's suicide leaves him directionless, and is trudging along like any other cadet when first deputy Sidel, the commissioner's right hand man, comes looking for a young cop with blue eyes to infiltrate a ring of Polish smugglers. He chooses Coen, and asks the cadet to join his department after he finishes the academy. Working under Sidel means fast promotions, plush assignments, and, when a corruption scandal topples his mentor, the resentment of every rank-and-file detective on the force.
Now just an ordinary cop, Coen hears word that his old mentor has a line on a human trafficking operation. When Sidel's attempt at infiltration fails, he sends in Coen. For Coen, it's a shot to prove himself and redeem his mentor, but it could cost the blue-eyed cop his life.
Mandy's Review:
Cover/Title
I had to take a picture of the cover of the copy I received from Tribute Books because I could not find a picture of this cover anywhere online. Of all the covers for Blue Eyes, I like this one the best. I think it is the best representation of this novel that there is.
Blue Eyes refers to one of the main characters of this novel, Manfred Coen.
Plot/Main Characters
Manfred Coen is a cop whose mentor has fallen from grace. He gets transferred from borough to borough depending on where he's needed. He's a cop's cop in that he's hard and tough when he needs to be, but he's also got a soft heart when it comes to his ex-wife and her daughters.
In this novel, he's being used by the cops to infiltrate a human trafficking operation that involves a porn movie maker and his niece, a Chinaman who promises revenge on Coen, a simpleton with a club foot, ping pong and several other elements. As Coen becomes more involved in solving the case, he unintentionally turns former friends into enemies ... enemies who want to see him dead.
Isaac Sidel is Coen's mentor. Even though you don't "see" him often in this novel, you still get the feeling that Isaac is the one pulling everybody's strings. He's the puppeteer of this production put on for the reader's enjoyment.
Overall
This novel is a gritty showcase of the cops and detectives of the 70s. The writing style will have the reader's mind bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball on a table tennis top. It is a wonderful trip back in time that will entertain you and leave you wanting more.
Side Note
The puppeteer, Isaac Sidel, has his own Twitter handle. If you want to follow him and see what he has to say, click here. =)
If you are using wordpress.com, you can simply drop the html below in a widget in the footer or at the bottom of the sidebar.
Not only is your review loads of fun, but so is your page - very Jerome Charyn: contains a lot of content in a wild and unusual package. You're so right about Isaac Sidel being a master puppeteer. Glad you mentioned the book left you "wanting more?" GREAT. I hope you'll read the next nine novels to see what mischief he gets into - and we'll be holding our breath for your reaction.
ReplyDelete- Lenore
Mandy, gotta love a fictional character who has his own Twitter account, right? Thanks for taking the time to review Jerome's book for its ebook re-issue.
ReplyDelete