Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed by Marc Blatte

Title: Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed
Author: Marc Blatte
ISBN: 9780980139419
Publisher: Schaffner Press, Inc/2009
Pages: 283

Synopsis

On a manic ride from the mixing boards of hip-hop recording studios to mansions in the Hamptons and the projects of the urban ghetto, Detective Black Sallie Blue Eyes ventures behind-the-scenes of the record business in search of a street-side assassin. Casting a widely satirical net on all spectra and species of the Manhattan social scene—from tweaking downtown hipsters, wrestling fetishists, and rapper wannabes to real estate moguls and hip-hop impresarios—this satirical urban noir novel offers intrigue, insight, and an innovative brand of humor.

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Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed is set in the midst of the music industry- the hip-hop kind with a cop detective Salvatore Messina, who turns out to be very likeable. He is investigating murder of an Eastern European immigrant who had worked as a bouncer at a club mainly frequented by hip-hop musicians and fans. Our cop is known as Black Sallie Blue Eyes. Although he is not one of the brilliant detective, he is nonetheless one of those cops who doesn't give up. His persistence makes up for his lack of sharp intelligence. Our cop jumps into the midst of twisted people, complex plots which involves money, drugs, music, fighting and moving in higher social strata. Almost all the characters have interesting nick names, as is norm in the music industry and street culture.

With intriguing characters, funny settings, quirky dialogues, the novel has a lot of potential. However, it was a bit slow in the beginning but picked up somewhere in the middle. The prose is not prize winning, what with rough edges. It is mostly street language kind..it also jars at places although our cop keeps us hooked. In the beginning one feels that most of the characters do not connect. Halfway through, they start to make sense. I wouldn't call it a noir fiction but more like street literature. And I think it ought to target young males. The females readers will not really take to the street language, the usage of which might hurt their sensibilities. At some places, I felt that way. (What else can you expect from a poet?!)

Our cop Sal Messina manages to hold on his own and I suppose Blatte plans a sequel. Do watch for those if you can take to street literature. One can also relate to the hip hop stuff.

Thanks to the author, Marc Blatte and Lisa Roe for the book.

Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed blog tour

September 21-October 2



11 comments:

Brooke from The Bluestocking Guide said...

This sounds really interesting.

J.T. Oldfield said...

I love the title!

Anonymous said...

lol I laughed at the title, it's cute hahaha. Not sure if this is the type of book I would read. I'm not a fan of hip hop stuff. It sounds interesting though.

Kerri said...

Agreed - what a clever title and great cover. It sounds like something I would like to read.

bermudaonion said...

Too bad the book doesn't live up to its great title.

Zia said...

I have an award for you here .

Anna said...

I had such high hopes for this one based on the title alone.

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric

Staci said...

Thanks for really great review but this doesn't sound like one for me!!

Anonymous said...

Not sure this is for me.

Suko said...

The title is a good one. It sounds like you enjoyed certain aspects of this book.

April said...

Great review! I just posted mine as well for the tour. It was a pretty good book, but a bit different than I am used to.