James Boice’s The Good and the Ghastly was released by Scribner this week. It’s his third novel and it’s completely different from either of his previous books, MVP and NoVA. It is a gangster noir epic set a thousand years into the future in a world eerily like our own, but skewed, where a mobster rises to power working both sides of the law, pursued by a vigilante who will not be stopped. It’s outrageous and slick and you can read my review of it here.
Scribner has generously offered to provide five copies of The Good & the Ghastly to our readers in a giveaway. As usual, we can’t resist a literary hoop to jump through. So, to enter the contest just comment below with either a favorite gangster/mob/organized crime novel or a favorite novel set in the future.
I’ll go first with one of each: I’ll take Billy Bathgate and The Road. Take it away…
One of my favorite gangster novels is the 1970 Jack’s Return Home by Ted Lewis.
For the future, I like The Hunger Game
I somehow haven’t actually read any gangster novels. I have to remedy that soon I guess. As for favorite novels set in the future, I’d definitely start with The Hunger Games. More recently, I loved Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, which I think is set in the future, with the whole zombies and society ending and such.
My current favorite gangster novel (I don’t read many) is Denis Johnson’s Nobody Move.
Favorite futuristic novel is Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart.
I thought the Hunger Games series was very good too. I thought we might get
a glimpse of Puzo in here somewhere or even Pelecanos.
I don’t really dig Hunger Games. I would like to propose the pants wetting horrifying future dystopia tale of The Long Walk by Stephen King, in which the reader finds the true meaning of ‘don’t trust anyone over thirty.’ I like Puzo’s The Godfather novel with its first glimpse of the shadowy world of the mafia in the courtroom where a father grimly remarked that he will get his revenge with a bit of help.
Despite it’s odd nature, I think Motherless Brooklyn is a great “gangster novel”. As to favorite novel set in the future: Right now it’s Super Sad True Love Story. But I’m reading Zed, and it might win me over. 😀
I really loved The Lock Artist, which had mob-like characters. Then there’s Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtrey, which is about Billy the Kid. Fantastic novel.
Legs by William Kennedy is the best gangster novel I’ve read and it is often overlooked, also, Red Harvest by
Dashiell Hammett is a close second.
As for a novel set in the future I have to go with Clans of the Alphane Moon by PKD or Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem.
The Killer Inside Me – Jim Thompson. The Giver – Lois Lowry