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    The Bouncer
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    The Bouncer
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    The Bouncer
    Ebook264 pages7 hours

    The Bouncer

    By David Gordon

    4/5

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    About this ebook

  • David Gordon’s first novel, The Serialist, won the VCU/Cabell First Novel Award and was a finalist for an Edgar Award. The Bouncer is his first novel with The Mysterious Press and Gordon is one of the few new writers Otto (who calls The Bouncer “one of the best capers ever”) has decided to take on.

  • For fans of Elmore Leonard, Richard Stark, and Chester Himes—The Bouncer combines dark, wry comedy with nonstop action. Gordon’s specialty is snappy dialogue coupled with a plot where multiple characters bounce off each other like billiard balls.

  • Though the plotting is lightning-paced and the violence high-stakes, Gordon also slyly subverts many expectations of the genre—for example, the main mafia character, Gio Caprisi, lives peacefully on Long Island with his child psychologist wife but also has a secret life as a cross-dressing sadomasochist who enacts his fantasies in hotel rooms with his blonde male accountant.

  • Gordon has real literary chops and his work also appeals to readers who normally aren’t drawn to the mystery genre. He has previously received blurbs from David Ebershoff (The Danish Girl), Rivka Galchen (Atmospheric Disturbances), Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), Karen Thompson Walker (Age of Miracles), and Rebecca Lee (Bobcat and Other Stories), among others, and has garnered critical claim from a range of outlets, including starred pre-pub reviews.

  • The Bouncer is the first book in a series featuring “Joe the Bouncer.” We have the second title under contract.

  • Gordon is a literary celebrity in Japan, where he won three awards for The Serialist: the Kono-Mys Award for Best Mystery in Translation, the Bunsun’s Best Mystery Award, and the Hayakawa Best Mystery Award. It was the first time in history that one book has won all three awards, and a subsequent Japanese feature film adaptation of the novel catapulted the book to the top of Japanese bestseller lists.

  • Gordon is a visiting assistant professor in writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and his work has appeared in The Paris Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Purple, Fence, and the New York Times Magazine (for which he wrote a piece called “Big in Japan”).

  • Online promotion (davidmichaelgordon.com), Twitter @DavidGordonX
    • LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMysterious Press
    Release dateAug 7, 2018
    ISBN9780802165770
    Author

    David Gordon

    David Gordon was born in New York City. He attended Sarah Lawrence College and holds an MA in English and Comparative Literature and an MFA in Writing, both from Columbia University, and has worked in film, fashion, publishing, and pornography. His first novel, The Serialist, won the VCU/Cabell First Novel Award and was a finalist for an Edgar Award. His work has also appeared in The Paris Review, Purple, and Fence among other publications.

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    Reviews for The Bouncer

    4/5

    11 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is a fast moving tale about an ex-Special Forces member, Joe, with nightmarish memories of Afghanistan, who is working as a bouncer at a strip club for an old friend, a mob boss. Joe decides to take on a couple of outside jobs as well, including heisting a bunch of weapons that are about to be sold illegally to a bunch of gun nuts in the middle of the woods. And this is where things begin to go very quickly off track. This deal leads to another, far more dangerous one, and Joe, never one to turn own a challenge or the chance for a quick buck, signs on. Or maybe he has a bit of a death wish, since between jobs he has to inject himself with narcotics in an attempt to blot out his Afghan memories--and probably a few of the new ones he is creating. And! There are SO MANY ands! And there is a pretty FBI agent on his tail, sort of, whose path he keeps crossing in the strangest places. And naturally, her ex-husband works for the CIA. And there is a cat-like Russian safecracker with plenty of charms of her own, who becomes Joe's partner in crime (as well as discussing Russian literature with him). And a really smart African American hacker who finds himself in quite a bind. And Gio, Joe's gangster friend, who has a few problems of his own. And his wife, who's trying to figure out where Gio got lipstick on his collar. And the really bad guys, a psychotic anti-American terrorist and his pregnant wife, who swap sweet nothings in between plotting to kill thousands of people. And many others just as strange and compelling.So, as I hope I have conveyed, this book is pretty much over the top in every way possible. It reminds me of the work of Anthony Neil Smith, who also deserves a major publisher. This book just moves so fast, however, and has so many great interactions between characters, that there isn't much time to think about just how implausible it all is if you stop to think about it, but why would you want to do that? I have a feeling a sequel is coming. Though much evil is taken, much abides. Okay, I'll quote from Tennyson rather than Dostoevsky.
    • 3/5
      Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an e-ARC of The Bouncer by David Gordon in exchange for an honest review. This book captured my attention in the first chapters. Joe Brody, a bouncer in a strip club owned by criminal elements, is a sympathetic sort of man who gives most people a break. His gentle nature is what endears him to the reader. What did not read well was the over-abundance of characters and plot lines: Joe's attraction to FBI agent Donna Zamora, his lifelong friendship with crime boss Gio Caprisi, the CIA, the Triads, gun running, a perfume heist, a confidential informant etc. etc. I read until the last fifty pages before I gave up, mainly because I found myself not caring what happened to our hero. A simpler plot might have been an asset for this novel. Not a bad read, but not a great one.
    • 4/5
      Right from the first chapter, I liked Joe, and I liked this book! He reminds me a bit of Richard Stark's "Parker" and the writing itself felt a little like Elmore Leonard. This was just a lot of fun! Joe is a bouncer at a strip joint, but so much more! Like Jack Reacher more! He goes on a heist, goes against the FBI, CIA, and some terrorists, and gets his sheriff 'badge' to boot! The only negative in this book, for me, is when Joe chases Adrian. It is so lame and slap-sticky. More like the Marx Brothers than any of the examples I gave above. If that scene were written like the rest of this book, I'd give it five stars for sure! As is, I still really enjoyed the read, and am excited to start the next one - which I just checked out of the library! Go, go, go, Joe!