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CM . . .
. Volume IX Number 8. . . . December 13, 2002
excerpt: She kisses me - the kind of kiss you feel in the tips of your toes. The kind of kiss that coveys the promise of everything that comes along with it. "Got a blanket or something?" "Everything is provided for your comfort," I manage to croak. I'm not proud of the feeble attempt to be suave. But after that kiss, I'm amazed my mouth works at all. I pop the trunk, reach in, and freeze. I almost choke on my lungs, which have leaped up the back of my throat. There's the blanket, all right - wrapped around the unconscious body of some guy! To be honest, my first thought is that he's dead- which isn't such a stretch; I told you about the family business. But when I suck in air with a resounding wheeze that echoes down the beach, his thin-lipped mouth lets out a little moan. Seventeen-year-old Vince is the son of powerful New York mob boss Anthony Luca. Although his comfortable life style is financed by criminal activities, Vince rebels by rejecting the family business and trying to live as lawful and ordinary a life as possible. Almost by accident, he falls in love with Kendra Bightly who turns out to be the daughter of the FBI agent who is monitoring the Luca household for evidence connecting Vince's family to a mob murder. In a cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof tap dance, Vince has to avoid Kendra's family, keep his morose buddy Alex happy and rescue two con men from themselves while he sidesteps his father's pressure to get motivated. Vince discovers who the mole is in his father's business, regains Kendra's affection and achieves the A++ in his New Media course that will gain him entry to a university as far away from his family as possible. Son of the Mob is a beautifully designed hard cover book. The glossy red silhouette on the back cover appears bloody while its mirror image, the sinister suitor with the crimson roses on the front cover, seems to invite the reader into the family business. The font is large and clear. This is a very funny, fast paced novel that will grab all high school students, especially boys, and make them laugh aloud. Although Korman is originally from Canada, he now lives in New York with his family, and he sets this story in a very American high school and New York club scene. The family business involves loan sharking, illegal betting on horses, intimidation and sometimes murder. To his horror, Vince's brother sets him up with a call girl as an apology for leaving a beaten-up crook in his car trunk. Although there are no detailed descriptions of Vince and Kendra's love life, the reader is acutely aware that "going out with" someone implies more than it did in the 1960's. This is definitely a novel for high school students. The writing is sharp and sarcastic and contemporary - vintage Korman. Surveying a college drunk at a party Vince says, "I love college. It's so much more mature than high school." When Kendra invites him to visit her parents for dinner, Vince describes the shock as a car accident he can't control. Vince's dilemma about how to reconcile his love for his parents with the horror of the family "vending machine" business is every teenager's rebellion. As Alex and Vince try to find girlfriends by joining the football team and Kendra and Vince deal with the school scene (will they be elected prom king and queen?), the reader is treated to bright, moral teens struggling to find their own voices. The themes of rebellion, finding a person to love, doing the moral thing and rescuing those in trouble, shine brightly. Less successful is how to reconcile Vince's love and affection for his parents with their criminal behavior. Korman seems to be saying that we can love our families and yet absent ourselves from them when they create evil at the same time as we take their money and support. Somehow it doesn't quite ring true. But it is funny. Very funny. Highly Recommended. Joan Marshall is the teacher-librarian at Fort Richmond Collegiate in Winnipeg, MB.
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