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Throw a seam roller down and let the guy watch it fall and think about what it would be like to follow it over, spinning down to shatter in the street. Patrick did what he was told, and they liked the money and he liked the feeling of being somebody nobody would fuck with.
There is an unspoken competition amongst the readers in public transportation and since nobody talks to one another, everybody is playing by their own set of rules. I have three ground rules when I'm playing ''My book is better than yours'' : 1) I have to be the only person in public transportation reading that book, 2) It has to make other readers feel at least intrigued. 3) The cover to title ratio has to enhance the overall badassery. Dennis Tafoya's THE POOR BOY'S GAME is somewhat of a rule #3 home run. Is the content on par with the terrific design, validating my shallow public transportation games? It's not exactly what it pretends itself to be, but it's an original and bruising novel that takes you far beyond the blinders of genre, into a territory you wouldn't have imagined.
Frannie Mullen was a proud U.S Marshal until the day a routine operation went wrong and a co-worker died for nothing. Devastated, she decided to leave the service before the service leaves her and yet she cannot find any solace at home: her dad Patrick, a sadistic enforcer for the Philadelphia roofers union, has just escaped from jail and is back in town to settle some old scores with his old employer. Frannie and her sister Mae are caught in the shitstorm as Patrick's only two weak points. The Marshal service is also suspicious of Frannie and pressures her to collaborate. Patrick Mullen is back in town and raising hell wherever he goes.
I thought THE POOR BOY'S GAME was interesting for being an effective exercise in reverse thinking. What happens when you turn a traditional crime novel inside out? You get a family drama where siblings are dragged in a downward spiral of chaos but someone important in their lives. Frannie Mullen is the definition of an empowered woman (career-driven, selfless, displays leadership), yet she can only witness the destructive force of a wayward parent while trying to save the meaningful people in her life from a violent and chaotic ending. Dennis Tafoya's decision to keep Patrick a shadowy figure in his novel and build around him and his aura was brilliant. It gave THE POOR BOY'S GAME a unique aura, a vibe that's difficult to replicate.
''I knew Patrick years ago, when we were in the union. We worked together. I worked on the roof, Patrick was, you know...'' His voice trailed off again. ''He wasn't a roof guy.''
If THE POOR BOY'S GAME stands out by the numerous ways it is different from a traditional crime novel, it does what they do pretty efficiently also. The mobsters of Dennis Tafoya are well-polished and subtle being who speak in half-truths and understatement even under life or death circumstances, due to force of habit. The peripheral portrait of the score settling Tafoya draws is grim, yet quiet and paranoid. Not everybody will get what it wants from THE POOR BOY'S GAME because it's such a surprising and unsettling novel. It's a drama with an hardboiled outline. The consequences of reckless violence are more important to THE POOR BOY'S GAME than the violence itself. I think it's going to turn some readers away because of that, but a good book's a good book, right?
The prose of Dennis Tafoya is stern and bruising. It's also stripped and confrontational. I walked away from THE POOR BOY'S GAME wobbly and light-headed from the haunting final scene. It also made me feel a little guilty for liking hardboiled fiction so much. It's realistic edge is what makes it such a different, peculiar crime novel. Don't read THE POOR BOY'S GAME and expect it to satisfy your expectations. It's not that kind of novel. It's a book that plays with that very notion and creates something that is entirely its own. It's a different book that pushes the boundaries of its genre. THE POOR BOY'S GAME was clever, destabilizing, confrontational and yet it's wrapped up in a beautiful, grim, realistic tale of revenge gone all sorts of wrong.