Review: Whassamattahwidya?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 7, 2012
New York,  1960s. Armando's daughter is a not-so-sweet young thing with a Bronx accent and a real potty mouth. She's a tease and is dumping her boyfriend when the book opens. She has a hard time with reasonable expectations for men and her father is the root of that problem. Armando is a thug, but a smart, made man in the Mob. He loved Cassandra's mother but they divorced because of his job and his many, many infidelities. He's been a largely absentee father but for some reason, Cassandra wants him in her life again. Maybe it's because of her mother's disgusting boyfriend's attempts to paw her. Although she may look and act like a whore, Cassandra objects to being treated like one. Since Armando is a "made" man deeply entrenched in the Mob, Cassandra devises a plot to reunite her parents and have her mom's boyfriend removed from the scene... permanently.The dialogue is well done and authentic to the people, place and time. It takes a little time to get immersed in it but once you've master real gangster speak, it's amusing to hear the characters authentic voices. There are strong farcical overtones to the book; these are indigenous New York ethnic groups that the author knows and understands but he portrays them with a deft, almost comedic touch. Each character is a stereotype and he treats each ethnic group with equal thrusts of his lampoon.  A great example of this is Nonna, Armado's mother, by far the most interesting character in the book. A former assassin for one of the Mafia families, she talks Cassandra and Armando into busting her out of the corrupt and neglectful Jewish nursing home where she lives and later falls in love with a black doctor. She's wildly implausible and hateful but funny.Reading all of the machinations of the characters in this book is almost as funny as watching the Keystone Cops. There are lots of subplots, action, reactions, arguments, and black comedy. The pace of the book is fast, the characters appealing and amusing.  The only flaws of the book are the demise of Nonna and the weak ending.