The Mad Ones

May 4, 2009
Mobsters are infinitely entertaining, but in TV producer Folsom's (co-author, Mr. Untouchable) chronicle of the infamous Gallo brothers who ruled Red Hook, Brooklyn in the 1950s and 60s, there's not only gang war, mayhem and murder, but the media sensation that was leader Crazy Joe Gallo. Immortalized in Jimmy Breslin's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, the Gallo brothers really did keep a lion in the basement to encourage payments, and broke with the rules of the Mafia by including outsiders like Mondo the Dwarf and an Egyptian nicknamed Ali Baba. In crisp prose that can veer into the tabloid, Folsom expertly captures the color of Crazy Joey and his times. Joey, who did time in psych wards and prisons (he read up to eight books a day in Attica), mugged for the cameras while being questioned by Attorney General Robert Kennedy at the McClellan Hearings in 1959, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, held court at Elaine's with Ben Gazarra and Bruce Jay Friedman and became best friends with actor Jerry Orbach. At the time he was gunned down (at Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy) at 43 years old, Joey had a book deal from Viking: "There's something suicidal about publishers," he said later, "paying a lot of greens for the big nothing."

Joey Gallo was a gangster who read existential philosophers, wrote poetry, painted watercolors, and was the inspiration for Bob Dylan's song "Joey" and popular journalist Jimmy Breslin's novel THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT. Narrator Josh Clark's reading of Folsom's history of the Gallo brothers is an odd mix of violence and comedy. Clark's tone is amused as he quotes Gallo: "My life is one foot in the coffin and the other on a banana peel." Clark is equally adept at recounting moments of utter brutality as Gallo brags about executing the barbershop hit on Albert Anastasia and delivering an assortment of vicious beatings. Clark has an upbeat, jazzy reading style that fits this colorful account of the life and times of "Crazy Joe." S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

January 15, 2010
TV director/producer Folsom (coauthor, "Mr. Untouchable") presents a cursory and indulgent look at the legendary Gallo boys, a trio of wannabe Mafiosos immortalized in a Bob Dylan ballad, in the pages of "Life" magazine, and as the inspiration for the "Godfather" trilogy. Set against the counterculture revolution of 1960s New York City, the tale is more a chronology than a biography; its pace, more conversational than focused documentary. Actor/narrator Josh Clark delivers a stylistic performance of this uneven yet compelling tale. Expect the major motion picture adaptation, currently in development by the Weinstein Company, to generate demand. [The Weinstein Bks. hc, published in May 2009, was a "New York Times" best seller.Ed.]Denise A. Garofalo, Mount Saint Mary Coll. Lib., Newburgh, NY

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.