The Bobby Gold Stories

April 14, 2003
With the same explosive energy and irreverent humor with which he described the behind-the-scenes affairs of the restaurant industry in Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain revisits some of the themes that made him famous: passion, food and violence. The novel (Bourdain's third, after Bone in the Throat
and Gone Bamboo) tells the story of Bobby Gold, probably the world's most unlikely gangster. A nice Jewish pre-med student implicated in a drug deal gone bad, Bobby goes to prison for 10 years and emerges with an entirely different set of uses for his knowledge of anatomy. Once released, he goes to work for his old friend Eddie Fish, a mobster turned nightclub owner, and falls in love with Nikki, a boisterous sous-chef with dangerous ambitions. Bobby and Nikki get involved in a botched robbery, forcing both to run for their lives. Their seedy shenanigans are wittily chronicled by Bourdain, in his nouveau hard-boiled prose ("'You want truffle jiz? Get your own truffle jiz, cabron' "). In one memorable set piece, Bobby engages in multiple pages of rueful conversation with an old fish wholesaler who's late on a payment to Eddie and knows he's about to be worked over (" 'I get to pick the arm?' 'Sure,' said Bobby. 'Your choice. You pick it' "). Readers will once again be delighted by Bourdain's charming, rugged sensibility, like a modern-day Damon Runyon, and his gourmet blend of wit, suspense and style. 10-city author tour.

May 1, 2003
Premed coke dealer Bobby Gold got caught, did 10 years, and came out big, muscled, and mean. Now he's head of security at a mobbed-up nightclub, moonlighting as a bone-breaking goon. He's sick of it, though, because under his black-clad, tough-guy exterior, he's got " feelings." He wants out of the racket even though he doesn't have specific plans. The third work of fiction by Bourdain, most known for his " Kitchen Confidential" (2000), is more novella than novel, 176 pages that some readers will finish during a day's commute. The former chef writes great scenes, including an early exchange where we learn that the guy Bobby's about to maim is his uncle, and a bit where Bobby's boss refuses to order from the menu. But that's about all he offers: The plot is bland and late-arriving, forcing this dish to get by on presentation alone. Bourdain also betrays his background with descriptions of food that are more convincing than the criminal atmosphere. This is tasty, easily digestible, and not very filling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)