King of the Cross

by Mark Dapin

Violently funny, brutally incorrect, sly and subversive and addictive... A killer read from a writer who punches both hands and winks at the crowd while he's at it. His protagonist is part punk, part pug, part poet – an anti-hero who reveals his own back story as he gets the King of the Cross to unravel the eerily familiar tale of his unlikely rise from schoolboy pornographer to millionaire philanthropist. Truth might be stranger than fiction but in the hardened artery of Dapin's King's Cross , alleged fiction rings truer than the alleged facts. A cunning stunt that could get him knee-capped. (Andrew Rule, author of Underbelly)King of the Cross is a dazzling novel that explores the criminal world of Jacob legendary Godfather of Kings Cross and for more than four decades, Australia's most powerful and notorious crime figure. To record his epic life story he employs a hapless young reporter from the Australian Jewish Times . As Mendoza unfolds his seductive story of thugs and drugs, murders and mysteries, bikers, bent cops and girls, girls, girls, it emerges that he's not the only one with a past. And as the memoir takes shape, other more terrifying criminals are circling the kingdom that Mendoza built.This is crime fiction as it's never been written before. Funny, edgy, violent, subversive and utterly compelling, King of the Cross is wickedly entertaining.

Genres: Crime, Australia, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

Mark Dapin is the author of the novels King of the Cross and Spirit House. King of the Cross won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and Spirit House was long listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year and the Royal Society for Literature's Ondaatje Prize.

His recent work of military history, The Nashos' War, has been widely acclaimed. He is a PhD candidate at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a stack of wonderful things written on the cover about it, the book is funny, a riot, etc..
Yet when I read it, well I am not so sure about this one. The main character Nick is awful, the women are all portrayed as awful, only usable for sex and Jacob Mendoza the other main character is larger than life with no redeeming features. The novel is about Nick, his lies and his complete lack of nothing. He apparently wants to be a journalist but he lies about his background and he lies his way through everything. There is a lot of swearing in this book, it did not bother me, nor did the graphic descriptions of sex and violence. Yet the book and I did not connect,I found the direction to obvious, I found the main character clueless, not having to make any kind of real decision about anything. I struggled with the book because it just failed to live up to the hype of the cover.
The book also borrows from a couple of true crime stories but still it took the more sensationalist elements rather than building strong interesting characters that are not caricatures.

[Lisa Burns · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had such a promising start & then just went on & on for me. I skimmed a bit. Disappointing.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

didn't like this much. it was overly graphic with not enough substance. one of those books i needed to finish reading so i could stop thinking about it. i was on my way to stay with a friend who lives in the substantially nicer part of kings cross in sydney and thought it would set the mood...

[Lee Kofman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel has lots of things I love - great energy, irreverence, lack of political correctness, hilarity. The story is racy and taught me a lot about history of Sydney and its crime scene. I had lots of fun with this book. Even more importantly, Dapin is a stylist. His sentences are a joy.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wouldn't recommend unless you have a special interest in the area or the corruption of the NSW police force at the time. Dapin is funny, and I always enjoy his writing, especially his feature writing. His characters are brilliantly drawn, and anyone with enough knowledge of the era should be able to figure out who the book is about.

[Michael O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pussy banging cock sucking violent drama played out through the Cross.

The antisemitism theme has stronger than I have experienced in Australia. The overall racist view was a stark contrast. It was annoying.

It was still a great read

[Lachlan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nowhere near as exciting as the write-up. Honestly got bored and skipped through bits!

[Milania · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing i 10/10 recomend this book, mark dapin is a beautiful writer and deserves to be famous and number 1 in the world for this book !!!!

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The blurbs set the bar way too high with things like "hilarious," "outrageous," and "explosive" when this book is actually slow for anything interesting to happen and the interviews dragged on in the middle. I see what it's trying to do with dueling unreliable narrators, but it doesn't work well.

[Karen]

Anybody with a passing interest in notorious Australian "identities" in the not so distant past isn't going to take too long to figure out who Mendoza is based on, and that same reader probably is going to be excused for any guesses about the writer who narrates this fictional book.

Basically the story is that a journalist working for The Australian Jewish Times makes a complete hash of a story and ends up being fired by the editor. Circumstances intervene, things happen, he finds himself interviewing / writing the life story of Sydney gangster Jacob Mendoza. Mendoza is what he is, although he does try to wrap it up in a lot of long-winded justification. Klein, the writer, isn't what he says he is. He wraps that up in a bit of a story as well.

Most of Mendoza's story is told in a series of long interviews or monologues, whilst most of Klein's story is narrated by him - aiming
obviously for an unreliable narrator scenario Undoubtedly the author has a fine eye and understanding of the characters that inhabit Kings Cross, but that fine eye seems somehow to fall sort when it comes to his two central characters. Mendoza's story is, I suppose, supposed to be hilariously funny - and there were some lines that absolutely raised a smile. It was also seemingly supposed to be confrontational - crude, rude and more than a bit risqué. Which has, after all, been done before and whilst I'm a big fan of writers doing this in our own voice, it has to be a more complete package.

Unfortunately I found KING OF THE CROSS a little too tedious, a little too forced and the few good touches didn't quite compensate.

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Dapin is an Australian author and King of the Cross is a fictionalised account of major Sydney crime figure Jacob Mendoza. The premise is Mendoza talking to a journalist about his extraordinary life as the Godfather of Kings Cross. The content is gritty and confronting, and I was glad to read that Mendoza is a fictionalised character.

I thought this novel would be filled with the kind of humour from Fridge Magnets Are Bastards, but while King of the Cross was certainly funny in parts, it was also hard-hitting.

My favourite quote from the book appears on Page 120:
"Also, the deluded moll who had complained of my 'unnatural' behaviour towards her realised that she had forgotten to move to Perth, an omission she remedied within days of the charges being laid."

Dapin has an incredible imagination and Mendoza definitely felt 100% real while I was reading his story. The language was convincing and it was fascinating to see Dapin pull back the curtain on the bright lights and partying atmosphere of Kings Cross, Sydney.

King of the Cross is for the reader who enjoys cutting edge humour and isn't shocked by foul language or tales of the sex industry.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book clearly appealed to the overly imaginative of readers, revolving around the theme of sexual encounters. I believed that Mendoza was real but for the time being it was hard to emphasise with other characters, where their backgrounds weren’t always developed. It was a good read but not necessarily the best.

[Warren Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im not sure if the 'interview' type style Dapin used in this book was the ideal format ; albeit a novel one. Parts were interesting and obviously well researched, I had the feeling it was an OK read that perhaps could have become a good one.

[R · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such promise. So disappointing. Another case of tight, fascinating writing and dreadful characters. I'm a little bit over reading books with no heart and no change within the story. These two stars are for the writing.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic read. Loved every minute of it!

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sort of writing you'd expect from the former editor of Ralph magazine. Bloody funny, insightful, fairly smutty but well written. The seamier side of Sydney has never been so entertaining

[Ann Tonks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a clever thought not always nice, witty but often dark, pseudo-fictional account of a famous Sydney crime figure.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

still reading....