St. Vincent's Home for Boys, 1970s Brooklyn. For Lionel Essrog, a.k.a. The Human Freakshow (a victim of Tourette's syndrome), Frank Minna is a savior. A local tough guy and fixer, Minna shows up to take Lionel and three of his fellow orphans on mysterious errands: They empty a store of stereos as the owner watches; destroy a small amusement park; visit old Italian men. The four grow up to be the Minna Men, a fly-by-night detective agency-cum-limo service. Their days and nights revolve around Frank, the prince of Brooklyn. ...
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St. Vincent's Home for Boys, 1970s Brooklyn. For Lionel Essrog, a.k.a. The Human Freakshow (a victim of Tourette's syndrome), Frank Minna is a savior. A local tough guy and fixer, Minna shows up to take Lionel and three of his fellow orphans on mysterious errands: They empty a store of stereos as the owner watches; destroy a small amusement park; visit old Italian men. The four grow up to be the Minna Men, a fly-by-night detective agency-cum-limo service. Their days and nights revolve around Frank, the prince of Brooklyn. Then, one dreadful night, Frank is murdered -- and Lionel must become a real detective.
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This is one of my all-time favorite New York novels. It's hilarious and tragic, and captures perfectly the scruffy Brooklyn milieu in which it's set. The story is quite strange -- there's a mystery involving the mafia, an Eastern-mystic guru, a doorman, and a car service, all told by a detective (?) with Tourette's Syndrome, still traumatized by his childhood in an orphanage. The literary energy just whirls you along.
