Charlie's Books

Charlie's Books
Buon Giorno, Amici!

Our motto ...

Leave the (political) party. Take the cannoli.

"It always seems impossible until it's done." Nelson Mandela

Right now 6 Stella crime novels are available on Kindle for just $.99 ... Eddie's World has been reprinted and is also available from Stark House Press (Gat Books).

Friday, October 3, 2014

Dogfella … Madame Bovary and Richard Yates … Ebola Suicide Bombers …

Amici:

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Hey, yous can pre-order Dogfella right now …

Pre-Order it here:

James "Head" Guiliani is the fifth of six kids born to a religious, working-class Italian-American family. He turned to petty crime in high school and was the enforcer for mob boss John Gotti of the Gambino crime family by his mid-20s. After serving time both in prison and in odd jobs, he now spends his days caring for and rescuing animals with his wife, Lena.

thediamondcollar.com

Charlie Stella is a critically acclaimed author of numerous crime novels, short stories, a screenplay and three off-off Broadway plays. His third novel, Charlie Opera, was picked as a Publishers Weekly Mystery Book of the Year in 2003. He received an MFA in fiction from Southern New Hampshire University.


 
Madame Bovary … it took me a second try, but I was able to get through it and relatively easily … I’m not sure why I had such a problem last year, but I didn’t this go. I read this book because my favorite American author (there are a few), Richard Yates, claimed it was a novel that influenced him to a great deal. I didn’t understand why until I came across a few (two I distinctly recall) mentions of mediocrity in the Flaubert novel. Yates seemed consumed with mediocrity; the character trait by which so many of his protagonists were forced to deal with (whether their own, or in the case of Emma, having to deal with Charles’ professional mediocrity). He’s boring and she wants glitz … so it goes.

There’s a lot of overwriting (for me) in Bovary. I always wonder what kind of rejection letter some of the classics would receive from today’s big 5 (or is it 6) publishers. Madame Bovary was a better than average read, but not by much (for me). I did admire the heightened sense of Emma’s paranoia at times …

 



Ebola Suicide Bombers? … if I have a fear of terrorists doing crazy shit here in the good old US&A, it’s from a concern for loved ones. After being bulldozed into believe attacking Iraq would somehow help secure our situation in America, it’s unlikely I’ll ever believe anything this government says again, and after seeing how duplicitous a few of its agencies have been the last few days regarding Ebola and White House security, how can we believe anything anymore? The bureaucrats lie to one another!

Still, if there is something for us to concern ourselves with, it’s the ability of lunatics to figure out a way around out so-called security. Similar to how Native Americans were once devastated by small pox bio warfare, we’re now susceptible to suicide killers deciding to load up on the Ebola virus and find their way into our (and other world) populations. It’s a scary thought, but one I’m sure has been thought of … let’s hope it doesn’t happen.
 
--Knucks
 
It's almost hockey season ... in the meantime, take 5 ...