Vinnie’s Head, by Marc Lecard. St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2007

I’ve read the first four chapter’s of Vinnie’s Head, and I could not be more impressed. This is Lecard’s first novel, and if the rest of the book is as good as this, the man is going to be a STAR.

I almost didn’t crack the book open. They got the cover exactly right. Bright aquamarine cover – a closer looks shows that it’s an underwater scene, with bubbles, dancing fishing lures, and a head, presumably Vinnie’s.

I assumed it was another New Jersey-based story of a lovable screwup making bad decisions on the fringes of the Mafia, just getting by and getting into trouble over his head, with a dash of humor and pinch of the grotesque, and I thought, “I don’t want to read this.”

Then I scanned the blurbs, and it looked like more bad news: on the front a single blurb from a writer, and on the back four more blurbs by other writers at the top of the page. Now you never know with blurbs from other writers: they could be legitimate praise, or they could be from writers afraid to say no. I was on the verge of tossing the book back on the This Will Never Be Read pile, when I read the last two blurbs: strong praise from Library Journal, and a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Of course reviewers aren’t always right, but LJ and PW are pretty darn good, and when they agree it almost always means something.

So I picked it up and started reading, and after what seemed like about three minutes I’d read 75 pages. I had to force myself to stop reading so I could make this a Rolling Review.

I was right about everything, except two things: it’s in Long Island, not New Jersey, and I really do want to read it.

So far it’s funny as hell, and our hero Johnnie LoDuco really is a lovable loser. What makes it beautiful is he knows he’s a loser, and every time he makes a decision it’s with a sort of helpless acquiescence, as if he knows he’s doing the wrong thing but still can’t imagine doing anything else.

I wonder why they waited till the bottom of the back cover to put the LJ and PW quotes. I was going to say that it was a bad decision, but I picked it up and started reading it, didn’t I? On the strength of what I’ve read so far, so should you. More to come.

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