Gone Bamboo

A book that makes you cringe in fear for the good people and want the evil doers to get theirs in the end. I was impressed with my own wanting, upon finishing several chapters, to start looking for airfare deals to get away to the tropics and not be myself for awhile. Great adventures into what could be only described as serious problems interfering with everyone's paradise. Great book and I'm hoping a follow up will one day arrive.

Tony's first novel "Bone in the Throat" left us in stiches with laughter. Much of that humor were the situations those characters got themselves into. In Gone Bamboo, the humor was mostly the off-beat characters themselves. Although both formulas worked, I liked the first one better but both are five star reads. As far as substance, "Bone" gets 5 stars and "Bamboo" gets 4 but I give "Bamboo" an extra star for the risks involved by the author in what could have been a sophmore jinx.

I'll move to New York and eat at Les Halles twice a week. Mid-week, of course.I loved "Bone in the Throat," and was delighted to find major characters re-appearing in "Gone Bamboo." I read it in an afternoon, and heck! I didn't think it was too hardboiled. In fact,I did cry in a couple of places. Like Elmore Leonard, Bourdain knows how to write dialogue. He also knows how to create characters, and write a pageturning plot. The sense of place, in this case St. Martin, is done so well that I could feel the sand between my toes, smell the barbecue shacks and want to run to the fidge hoping to find a bottle of Red Stripe.Bourdain has a nice touch especially with creating strong female characters. Frances, the female protagonist, is now my idol and role model.

While initially disappointed that "Bamboo" didn't feature the kind of food/chef/NYC atmosphere of his first book; I was knocked out cold by Bourdain's usage of street lingo,various American dialects, and cop-speak in the best Elmore Leonard tradition. Sprinled liberally with hip humour and pop culture it was a great read that I'd love to see in film...and I've got a crush a mile long for the protagonist's lethal wife. What a character!

Most of the professional reviewers missed the boat on this one. Great dialog, quirky characters, and just enough sex made this a great way to spend a few airplanes rides. I'm ordering his other work, Bone In The Throat, right now!