Funny Boys

by Warren Adler

Even when murderous gangsters are shoving his head into a toilet, Mickey Fine can't stop making jokes. He wants a career in comedy so badly that he takes a job as a Tummler, a comedian and host for a hotel in the Catskills; a hotel where he knows the very gangsters who abused him are staying. An already dangerous situation escalates when Mickey falls for Mutzie, the "number one girl" of Pep who is arguably the most violent thug in the hotel. Betrayals and politics within the mob play out behind the scenes while Mutzie joins Mickey on stage and the pair inevitably find themselves marked for death. But Mikey is naive to the more sinister side of his audience made up of mobsters and other power players of New York's underbelly. But as their circumstances start catching up with them and the body counts start mounting, Mickey and Mutzie start angling for a way out. That, of course, isn't as easy as it sounds. A dark comedy of errors about success, the mob, and finding true love.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Audiobook

352 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

Warren Adler was an American author, playwright and poet. His novel The War of the Roses was turned into a dark comedy starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.
Adler was an essayist, short-story writer, poet and playwright, whose works have been translated into 25 languages.

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my third read by Adler, a strikingly prolific author who recently passed away. Some of his books were adapted for screen, but all of his books seem to be written for it, which is to say there’s a certain rhythm, certain pace, certain style to all of the ones I’ve read thus far that make them very dynamic in a very specifically very screen-ready fashion. And then there’s the melodrama, can’t forget the melodrama - Adler’s books version of drama. It’s heightened, exaggerated, overblown…not outrageously so, but noticeably. Mind you, it doesn’t affect the reading, in fact it makes for a fairly entertaining read, but there’s something too in-your-face about it.
This one, like many Adler’s books, concentrates on the Jewish American experience, taking the readers back in time to the post-Prohibition pre-WWII era. The year is 1937 and gangsters rule. In this book, these gangsters are predominantly Jewish. The story takes place in New York, state and city, and nearly every single person speaks in phonetics, sounding not only like a typical nyuuu oawka (that’s New Yorker for the uninitiated) but also peppering the speech liberally with Yiddish, not the most attractive of languages – proof…of the two protagonists, a perfectly nice sounding name like Miriam has been mutilated into Mutzie.
Mutzie is a about to turn eighteen and her life is laid out before her, by her mother, a life strikingly resembling that of her mother’s, small, insular existence revolving around their apartment and their family. Mutzie has grown up on movies and wants more, she wants a movie life. So, she gets a movie-style makeover and with her new look wins over the attention of a local gangster, a murderer for pay, no less (who said young people make good decisions), a superficially attractive but ugly on the inside sort of man. And so, she becomes his numba one goil with all the concomitant nastiness. And for the summer he puts her up at a prestigious upstate resort for him and people like him.
And in that resort a young man with a million jokes and puns has recently been hired for the position of tumler (a social director), he sees Mutzie and goes all googaa for her…cue in the forbidden romance. Slowly but surely as their storylines converge, so do their paths, and soon it’s up to the jokes-a-minute Romeo to rescue his gangster-used Juliet from the life she had so naively chosen for herself.
And he’ll try his best too, all the while never pausing with the jokes.
So, a decent story, a decent book, Adler’s books have a certain innate readability to them, but it does get tiresome at times, the vernacular, the bizarre lingering on rape and violence, and oh, yes, the vernacular. But then again, it reads quickly and does a fairly credible job of revisiting a bygone era if only in a manic Marvelous Mrs. Maisel sort of way. Some of the jokes are actually pretty amusing too. Lots of made men, but really only one funny boy. Thanks Netgalley.

[Christopher Jacobs · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a funny book but lacks in logic a business model that is based on how funny your entertainers are to impress is just weird

[Mel Ostrov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny Boys
by
W. Adler

Not a Very Comical Book

The “Boys” in the title must be a misnomer. The only funny boy I noticed in this book was Mickey, the “Tummler,” so why the plural “s”? And don’t think this story is a comedy. It revolves around a virginal, beautiful and naïve New York Jewish girl who gets involved with a psychopathic Mafioso. He introduces her to sex while she becomes his moll. The descriptions of her deflowering border on pornography.
Much of the plot takes place in the New York Catskills at a time when it was famous for its numerous Jewish-oriented resort hotels that featured onstage entertainment, including a master of ceremonies comedian referred to in Yiddish as a “Tummler.” In the book, Mickey recites innumerable one- or two-liner jokes that are really funny and will make you smile.
The plot revolves around a gathering of The Mob at that particular hotel where the girl, nick-named Mutsie,” gets into deeper and deeper trouble with the killer boyfriend. Her plight is heartrending, making the reader worry about her, empathizing with the pain and fear she must endure as she gets drawn into a deadly situation from which it seems impossible to extricate herself. Very cleverly, the author uses the names of real infamous Mafia gangsters for the characters at the meeting. Even New York Governor Lehman plays a fictitious role in the book.
There are parts of this story that can be downright frightening. The only problem with this book is that the conclusion seemed to peter out too hurriedly, as if the battery was running out of its charge. But the enjoyment is more in the “getting there” rather than the ending.

[Joe Bartello · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book about Jewish comedians should have some really funny bits even if it is about mobsters. No such luck with this story about The Catskills in its heyday. The only guy with a sense of humour is real-life head of the mob, Albert Anastasia. Oy! Maybe I expected too much. Should I feel guilty?

[TheSaint · Rating 4 out of 5]

What really made this audiobook a winner for me was the narration. From Mutzie, the naive teenager with stars in her eyes, to Pep, the Jewish Gangster with murder in his heart, the voicing made the characters jump off the "page." There weren't too many surprises in the narrative; the historical context should be familiar territory to many readers. Hanging the story onto a Catskills comic though, was genius -- the court jester can get away with speaking many truths to power.

Unrelated: I was also listening to Planet Funny, by Ken Jennings. He takes pains to explain humor in historical context, which made the Funny Boys "humor" of the Borscht Belt seem quaint and barely worth a chuckle nowadays.

[Louise Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stepped out of my comfort zone in choosing this and am so glad I did. It is quirky, witty, fast paced and great fun. A bit of romance, a bit of comedy, a bit of mystery and lots of thrills make for a very enjoyable read.

[Faye]

Adler, Warren
Allison, Dorothy
Balducci, David
Barker, Clive
Barnhardt, Milton
Banks, Russell
Baker, Kevin
Connolly, Michael
Coulter, Catherine
Cussler, Clive
Erskine, Barbara
Frey, Stephen
Gaiman, Neil
Garwood, Julie
Genberg, Iran
Gordon, Mary
Griffin, W.E.B.
Herbert, Brian
Hucker, Hazel
Jance, J.A.
Jong, Erica
Jordan, Robert
Leonard, Elmore
LesCroart, John
Long, Jeff
Lowell, Elizabeth
Martin, George R.R.
Mortmann, Doris
Moyes, JoJo
O'Shaugnessy, P
Paolini, Christopher
Price, Eugenia
Pulitzer, Roxanne
Quigley, John
Rice, Anne
Robb, J.D.
Silva, Daniel
Shreve, Anita
Sizemore, Susan
Smith, Alexander McColl
Streshinsky, Shirley

[E.R. Yatscoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really care for this as the main character was unlikeable, always wisecracking. I did like the sweetie Mutzie though. The mob of Kikes and Wops together at a mountain resort and Pitt and one mob guy who takes in Mutzie and later treats her badly was okay. I needed a little more emotion from Mickey. It is a period piece and the dialogue is all New Yawk which I hate hearing and even more reading. A library book.

[waitwaittellme · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed learning about this piece of history, which I was previously unfamiliar with, but ugh, the violence was way too disturbing for me. The female lead was pathetically helpless (even accounting for how impossible her circumstances were) and I found the ending to be fairly unsatisfying. Sadly, a great premise and solid writing still couldn't make it work for me.

[Brenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Predictable Mob soap opera...not for me. Could only make it through the first half--then read the end which was exactly as expected.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

NoBSBookReviews

[Cecily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of my favorites. I was hoping for this to be a funny book but it wasn't. And being at the clubs in the Catskills just reminded me of "Dirty Dancing". I wouldn't recommend this book.

[Johanna]

Excellent book, although I "listened" to the audiobook rather than reading it. One of the best, funny books in awhile and I recommend it.

[Vicki Kolmodin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adler brought a different era of the USA to life with his somewhat funny but tragic novel of the mob in the Catskills at a time when a lot of locals moved to the resorts during the summer.