Bones of Brooklyn

"Bones of Brooklyn continues the saga of Howard "Windows" Fenster, the reluctant gangster extraordinaire. In Debasements of Brooklyn, Howie fights his way out of Sheepshead Bay, using insights gleaned from his father's collection of Penguin Classics and an automatic handgun provided by his late boss Vinnie Five-Five. Accompanied by his girl Ariel, they mean to make a brief stop at her studio in Greenwich Village before they escape to points west, north, south or east, anywhere out of the murderous precincts of non-gentrified Brooklyn. But inertia and post-traumatic stress nail them in place. Howie grows a top-knot and finds Bohemian cafâe, while Ariel loses herself in the enticing winter scenes painted inside the Grey Goose bottle. It doesn't take long for Pauli Bones, Howie's psychopathic patron, to track him down. Howie owes Pauli, and Pauli needs Howie because war decimated the old crew and his new crew consists of inept second stringers and unreliable mercenaries. The journey to self-discovery bringsHowie to the very point where he started, this time with a new awareness of his powers. Shock and disappointment overwhelm Howie when he learns just how skilled a gangster he is. Pauli Bones, Rose Spoleto (widow of Vinnie Five-Five,) and the Slavic Goddess Alexandra Rachmaninoff all rely on his professional competence to take care of business. Is this it for Howie? Is his dream of living the life of the mind over for good? Can Ariel, whose career in marketing is only tangentially related to extortion andmurder, adjust to Howie's new/old life? And if she can, can Howie still love her if he loathes the gangster in himself? The answer to these questions may not satisfy Howie, but they will amuse and horrify everyone else"--