THE FAST BUCK is one of those books that drops you right down in the middle of the action and lets you catch up as you go along. Joe Chicagano, also known as Joe Chicago, is a down-on-his-luck prizefighter who gets involved with the Mob following World War II. He’s not much more successful as a hood than he was as a boxer, and as this novel opens, he’s regaining consciousness on the floorboard of a car being driven by a beautiful woman he calls Legs, because that’s all he can see of her as he comes to. He’s been beaten up and as the mysterious woman shoves him out of the car into the gutter, all he knows for sure is that somebody stole ten thousand dollars from him, and he’s going to get it back no matter what it takes.
Then he discovers that the police think he died in a fiery car crash the night before. When he starts trying to figure out what happened to him and find out who took his money, people he talks to have a habit of being murdered in circumstances that make the cops think he’s the killer. Joe’s not the smartest guy in the world and he knows it, but he’s extremely stubborn – and he wants his money back.
From here the author really piles on the complications, packing several competing groups of mobsters, stolen gems that were looted during World War II, numerous murders, boxers, and actors into not much more than 40,000 words, if that. The headlong pace of this book is its real strength, along with the occasional good line and some vividly sordid descriptions of various lowlifes and their environment.
Don’t mistake this for some sort of lost classic, though. It’s not. The writing, for the most part, is too unpolished and awkward for that. As far as I’ve been able to determine, Ross Laurence wrote only this one book. I wondered at first if the name was a pseudonym for an author better known under some other byline, but I don’t think so. THE FAST BUCK really reads like a first novel, with flashes of real talent struggling to get out through the amateurish writing. If anyone knows more about the author, I’d be really interested to hear it. I wouldn’t rush out to find a copy of this book, but if you run across it, it’s worth reading for the unrealized potential you can see in the author, if for no other reason.
(Reaching all the way back to September 26, 2008, when this post first appeared in a somewhat different form. It doesn't seem like it's been nearly 17 years since I read that book.)
2 comments:
It was a pleasure and a surprise to find your review of The Fast Buck. Your observations about this novel and its author hit home. You asked if anyone knew more information about the author. The book was written by my uncle, Joseph Rositani, under the pseudonym Ross Laurence. He used other names in his poems, short stories, articles and essays for magazines; but TFB was the first (and I believe only) Ross Laurence novel. As you might have guessed, he grew up in the gritty, Italian neighborhoods of Chicago. Though formal education beyond high school was cut short by the Third Army infantry/Europe/WWII, he was an energized writer until his tragic death as a passenger in a Los Angeles auto accident when he was about 40...I think that was 1960? While big money as a writer wasn't in the cards, he was a big deal in our family: our first writer...inspiring several of us to enter careers in which writing is central to our professions and our generational success. Thanks for covering his book.
Thank you, Joseph, for telling us about your uncle. I love making contact with friends and family of authors who have entertained so many of us in years past. I've made this comment the subject of its own post so that more people will be able to read about Joseph Rositani and his life and work. Thank you again.
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