Sweet Money Girl/Life and Death of a Tough Guy - by Benjamin Appel (Paperback)

About the Book

Two colorful and insightful 1950's novels set in the heart of New York City from the author of Brain Guy and Plunder.

Book Synopsis

SWEET MONEY GIRL

Hortense is a cynic. Love is great and all that, but it's money that makes the world go round. Maxie is in love with Hortense. She won't give him the time of day, but he knows if he can just put together a big real estate deal, she'll be his--at least for awhile. One night, Maxie introduces Hortense to Hugh, his best friend, who also falls in love with her. Hugh is a realist, willing to take Hortense on her own terms. This is the story of three lives that collide one December in New York City--Hortense, the dance instructor who knows how to look out for number one; Maxie, the mamma's boy who just wants his shot at happiness; and Hugh, who wrecks it for all of them.

LIFE AND DEATH OF A TOUGH GUY

Joey Kasow is a skinny Jewish kid growing up in the 1920's in Hell's Kitchen. Tormented by the Irish thugs in the neighborhood, he eventually gains their begrudging respect and is allowed to join their gang, the Badgers. Joey grows up tough. He knows he's got to take whatever is dished out to him to stay in the gang. He learns how to inflict pain--he learns how to kill. And gradually he works his way up the ladder to become the Spotter's enforcer. He is now Joey Case. But Joey can't escape his past, falling in love with innocent young Sadie Madofsky, his refuge from the brutal world around him. All Joey wants is to get ahead--but the Spotter has other plans for him.

Review Quotes

"The rise-and-fall tragedy of a man neither good nor wholly evil, written with haunting sensitively and perception." -Anthony Boucher, N.Y. Times (on Life and Death of a Tough Guy) "Every word Benjamin Appel writes is convincing. The atmosphere is breathlessly accurate." -Seattle Post Intelligencer "The details of how New York looked and felt then, and the men and women who populated it, are shot through with so much nuance and energy that they seem alive on the page today." -Wendell Jamieson, New York Times