[.ca] The Bobby Gold Stories (ISBN 1582344094)

From Amazon.com:
Author Anthony Bourdain is a talented chef whose two previous thrillers (Bone in the Throat, Gone Bamboo) were seasoned with the kind of culinary details that delighted the Food Channel-loving fans of his successful nonfiction books. The foodies will slaver over a wonderfully wrought scene in his latest caper novel--it's set at a chic Manhattan restaurant where a gourmand gangster with a picky palate turns the chef's menu upside down and stiffs the poor waiter who has to accommodate him. But the rest of this otherwise slight and unseasoned novel doesn't live up to that wonderful appetizer. Its protagonist is Bobby Gold, an ex-con who works as a security guard at Eddie Fish's Nightclub and is involved with a sexy sous-chef named Nikki whose preparation of a special meal for her lover reads like Bourdain's version of foreplay. But when Nikki rips off the restaurant receipts and Bobby gets on the wrong side of a mob plan to kill Eddie's appetite for good while recouping the money, Bourdain's plotting goes sour and the ending fails to satisfy. Still, it's a nice side dish to go with a good cookbook, or even one of the author's zany true stories of what goes on behind the swinging doors of many real-life restaurants (Kitchen Confidential, A Cook's Tour). --Jane Adams

Uninteresting novel now in "pamphlet size!":
I recently picked up "The Bobby Gold Stories" at my local, Mesa, AZ, library. Needless to say, it was the greatest book that I have ever read, if you consider the Escorts section of the Qwest Dex Yellow Pages and the heart-breaking tale of Larry "Bud" Melman's career beginnings as a fan dancer "great." Bobby Gold is like a very tall, thin, face-busting, arm-breaking, Jewish Johnny Cash, except he can't play the guitar, or sing, or be memorable or have an impact on anything. You can read the plot synopsis for yourself to see what this book is about. I read the bulk of the book in a few hours. This book is about as long as "Goodnight, Moon," and the plot includes less twists. Memorable exchanges between Bobby and his hot, Asian-eyed romance pot of love, Nikki, include "You're a dangerous woman. You're going to get us both killed," and the ever-popular "Do you like the kind of music I like? 'Cuz if so, I'll climb on you!"-type comments like "I need to look at your record collection. I see any Billy f****** Joel in here and this ain't gonna happen." Nothing builds up a strong, sexy relationship like NOT enjoying the tunes of Billy Joel. I myself have spent many nights with my man, commenting on how much we hate "The Stranger" while sipping vodka and enjoying each other's company. Maybe if I was a big New Yorker, I would be saying things like this. Maybe if I beat people up and stole things for a living, or was otherwise "cool," I would understand this novel. Maybe if I got all hopped up on the goofenthal, I would adore it if I wrote like this. But I'm from Arizona, and even though it's to the left of middle America, I'm living across the street from a man with wooden signs tied to his bushes saying "Get U.S. Out of U.N." and "Waiting for the Rapture!" This story is not fleshed out enough and I was embarrassed that I had read it. Does Mr. Bourdain have some sort of connection with the publishing industry that the rest of us don't? If you can come out of many years of drug use and still produce poo like this that can get published and make money, I better get out my spoon. This book was hooey.

This is far from Bourdain's best work:
For those of you looking for more in the vein of 'Kitchen Confidential' or 'Cook's Tour,' you may want to skip to the next item on your To-Read list. Anthony Bourdain switches to his fiction hat in his latest outing - a brisk paced read written in minimalist brushstrokes chronicling the adventures of Bobby Gold a tough-as-nails, recently released ex-con who is smitten w/the fetching saute cook at a niteclub/restaurant that he works the security detail on. For fans of hard-boiled crime fiction, this book may leave you feeling a bit unsatisified as the narrative is somewhat lacking in painting pictures of grimy crime worlds, and ingenious criminial schemes, et al. But what Bourdain clearly excels at and ultimately makes this slim-read somewhat worth your while are the moments detailing the inner workings of restaurants and the capturing of colorful banter between chefs, cooks, doing their jobs and talking smack amongst each other.

This book is unfinished:
Too bad. I was hoping for a book as good as (or even better than) Bone In The Throat or Gone Bamboo. Instead he gives us some great characters, rushes them into interesting relationships, and then develops neither. There's no pay-off at the end when it could have gone so many different ways. Shame on you, bro!

Not his best work, but still enjoyable:
The Bobby Gold Stories follows in the mafia-esque footsteps of Bourdain's previous efforts at fiction, and comes up somewhat short. There's not a whole lot of character development here, and what serves as a plot is rather choppy and incoherent throughout most of the book. It was almost like Tony couldn't decide if he wanted to write a novel or a bunch of short stories. Sadly, references to the food service industry were sorely lacking in this one. I think he should keep that, as it really sets him apart and makes his work that much more unique. Regardless, it was still fun to read, and I look forward to more of his work.

Fast paced, frantic tale.........:
Anthony Bourdain, an executive chef and talented author (read Kitchen Confidential and also Bone In The Throat!!) creates Bobby Gold, a tough guy for a Jewish mobster. Bobby is caught in the middle, between old friends from his past and his boss. Then as if things aren't complicated enough, he may be meeting the woman of his dreams. One of the funniest scenes in the book is when his boss orders dinner at a well known restaurant, demanding that everything he orders be changed from the menu the chef has worked so hard to create. He picks and chooses and rearranges ingredients, sauces and anything else that he can creating hate and discontent among the kitchen and the waitstaff. This story is fast paced, sometimes almost too fast, but Bourdain, as always, delivers!!