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My Ride with Gus
A man finds himself in a New York loft apartment with the body of a complete stranger sprawled across his floor. The mystery leads to a crazy night's drive around New York in the company of Jimmy, his brother Gus and the body in the boot of the car.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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211 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
February 1, 2020
Jimmy the architect, Gus the mob fixer and Joey the Priest are estranged brothers who meet on a wild New Year's Eve in 1969 Brooklyn. Together they find redemption while desperately trying to ditch a dead body. As odd as that sounds, it's a wonderfully original story of about the enduring strength and unbreakable loyalty of a family. I'm glad I read it and so will you.
August 10, 2023
“Life’s a blow job from a vampire, Jimmy. You get the pain and the pleasure at the same time. Happy people ignore one and concentrate on the other.”
October 14, 2012
I so love this book that it took me only one Saturday to finish it; amidst all the errands. In my rating scale, a well told tale about relationships in the family scores very high. This is one of them.
It talks about overdue reunions, overdue confessions, redemption, reconciliations, fate, letting go, living, loving...a whole range of emotions felt, values reclaimed, issues cleared, all during an overnight drive one New Year's Eve; a drive that brought back the past, to reconcile with the present and seal a better and happier future. It emphasizes that all things happen for a reason, even if that reason took a long time coming, two decades to be exact.
Hold on....I think I just made it sound like a very serious book... Well, it is if one really gets into the meat of the story and ponders about it. On the surface however, it is very light and easy. It was a quick read that I did not want to end; so it was good that the author completed it with epilogue-like accounts of what happened after that night. It doesn't have that forced dramatic effect of leaving the readers hanging and guessing.
I already have a number of books by Charlie Carillo; thanks to my sister for the recommendation. Now I'm asking myself why I didn't start reading them sooner.
It talks about overdue reunions, overdue confessions, redemption, reconciliations, fate, letting go, living, loving...a whole range of emotions felt, values reclaimed, issues cleared, all during an overnight drive one New Year's Eve; a drive that brought back the past, to reconcile with the present and seal a better and happier future. It emphasizes that all things happen for a reason, even if that reason took a long time coming, two decades to be exact.
Hold on....I think I just made it sound like a very serious book... Well, it is if one really gets into the meat of the story and ponders about it. On the surface however, it is very light and easy. It was a quick read that I did not want to end; so it was good that the author completed it with epilogue-like accounts of what happened after that night. It doesn't have that forced dramatic effect of leaving the readers hanging and guessing.
I already have a number of books by Charlie Carillo; thanks to my sister for the recommendation. Now I'm asking myself why I didn't start reading them sooner.
June 10, 2022
Very entertaining and quick read, suffered a bit from some of the dialog between characters. Could have benefitted from some proofreading but it was a good story.
November 28, 2009
One of the funniest books I've ever read - cover to cover hilarious!
December 4, 2024
I loved this book. The Gambuzza brothers--Jimmy, Gus, and Joseph. After a fight with the woman he intended to propose to, Jimmy is followed home by a woman he thinks must be a hooker but she's much worse. She's dead by page 15. The rest of the book mostly deals with all the people they meet while trying to dispose of the body.
June 15, 2019
I would definitely describe this as a "wild ride". For the most part it was very entertaining. I did find the brother who was a priest a bit jarring. His irreverence and salty language detracted rather than enhanced the story line.
March 23, 2022
Good Story!
I picked out this book as a light read on a rainy day. It overdelivered! Good story. Quirky characters. Humor. Tension. Had it all then wrapped it up perfectly. I especially loved the life lessons along the way. I recommend this book!
I picked out this book as a light read on a rainy day. It overdelivered! Good story. Quirky characters. Humor. Tension. Had it all then wrapped it up perfectly. I especially loved the life lessons along the way. I recommend this book!
October 22, 2022
Perfect
I didn't really want to read this book I just didn't have anything else to read but once I started it I couldn't put it down... There's lessons in this book we all could learn
I didn't really want to read this book I just didn't have anything else to read but once I started it I couldn't put it down... There's lessons in this book we all could learn
January 26, 2020
This book was such a treat. A quick page-turner, I wanted to know what happened next. Wonderfully written. It could be turned into a play or movie. Thank you, Charlie Carillo, for another fun read.
August 6, 2022
Very entertaining!!!
This book sucks the reader in and won't let them go till the end! I loved it! I would recommend it to anyone, especially those with Italian backgrounds.
This book sucks the reader in and won't let them go till the end! I loved it! I would recommend it to anyone, especially those with Italian backgrounds.
April 28, 2016
Loved this book! I was hooked right away with the writing style, wit, and main character. This is a great story about a man who is lost in life because he has spent too much time running away from problems rather than deal with them. When the main character gets into a bit of trouble, he digs deep and calls someone from his past to help out. That's when the story really gets going. It's a great ride! This would be a fantastic movie. I could totally see the action in my head, I was wondering if this was first a screenplay that was turned into a book.
Two things that bothered me: the title is in first person, but the story is in third person. That threw me off at first. Second was the bad editing - lots of punctuation issues. Neither detracted from my enjoyment of the book, which is unusual. It speaks to how much fun this book is!
If you are on the fence, just jump and read this book. Go for it!
Two things that bothered me: the title is in first person, but the story is in third person. That threw me off at first. Second was the bad editing - lots of punctuation issues. Neither detracted from my enjoyment of the book, which is unusual. It speaks to how much fun this book is!
If you are on the fence, just jump and read this book. Go for it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2020
I read a book previously by this author which was let down by a lot of mistakes but this one is unreadable the state it's in, I'm afraid. I have highlighted 12 needless hyphens used in only 2% of the book that I had tackled before I'd seen enough !!
Yes, it could be a formatting issue but if so, then the author needs to sort it out and get it reissued by Amazon, but get it tidied up whatever it is !!
Won-dered, founda-tion, mar-riage, consid-ered, mus-cles, brac-ing, gog-gled, no-body, every-body, ven-tured, Wen-dy's and hov-ering !! That was really hard to type up as well !! But they're just as hard to read and I'm not prepared to. No idea what the story is like as it's just not readable.
For some reason he is listed as both Charles Carillo and Charlie Carillo on Goodreads as well. I've managed to tidy that up but I'm not able to if it's the same on Amazon.
Yes, it could be a formatting issue but if so, then the author needs to sort it out and get it reissued by Amazon, but get it tidied up whatever it is !!
Won-dered, founda-tion, mar-riage, consid-ered, mus-cles, brac-ing, gog-gled, no-body, every-body, ven-tured, Wen-dy's and hov-ering !! That was really hard to type up as well !! But they're just as hard to read and I'm not prepared to. No idea what the story is like as it's just not readable.
For some reason he is listed as both Charles Carillo and Charlie Carillo on Goodreads as well. I've managed to tidy that up but I'm not able to if it's the same on Amazon.
September 6, 2016
Not bad but not great either. I expected it to be better given the reviews but it just wasn't my kind of thing unfortunately.
Read
July 24, 2012I wan't expectiong much, but it was truly one of the best books I have ever read. Read it in one night, because I could not put it down. It was funny, heartwarming and had the best unexpected twists. I suggest this to anyone. PS I got this as a free book and ending up buying everything he wrote. They were all good, but this was by far the best.
August 29, 2012
I read this after thoroughly enjoying Carillo's Raising Jake, but was a bit disappointed in the execution of this similar story of family bonding under duress. It's a great story at its core, but I found a lot of the dialog to be very forced, and there were a few instances where I had a hard time suspending disbelief at a character's thoughts or actions.
March 5, 2015
I read this after finishing "Raising Jake", and found a lot of the same mood from that book. It's not as brilliant as the former, but the story is solid, and the character development is outstanding.
Can't say too much, as that will give the plot away - just that you should get on this if you enjoy good writing, a great story and people that actually put family first...
Can't say too much, as that will give the plot away - just that you should get on this if you enjoy good writing, a great story and people that actually put family first...
January 23, 2017
Better than I expected
Quick read that turned out to be better than I had anticipated. Started out a little predictable but quickly turned the opposite and kept me wanting to turn the next page to see what happens next with a satisfying ending.
Quick read that turned out to be better than I had anticipated. Started out a little predictable but quickly turned the opposite and kept me wanting to turn the next page to see what happens next with a satisfying ending.
May 16, 2011
I love this book. Have re-read it many times.
April 11, 2012
One of the best books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Charming, funny, fast-moving and at the same time, a darkly humorous look at family ties and why they're so important.
August 4, 2012
A quick read that is at times funny and at other times, disturbing.
September 20, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. The characters are incredibly well developed and likable.
Carillo has such a way with dialog that just pulls you in.
I do look forward to reading more of his books.
Carillo has such a way with dialog that just pulls you in.
I do look forward to reading more of his books.
February 2, 2013
What a wonderful, wonderful story.
November 19, 2012
Hilarious. Would love to read it again now that I've been to NYC.
December 8, 2012
Even though there was plenty of curse words in this book, it wasn't bad, and was a quick read. Good ending!
October 1, 2011
Charlie....I LOVED this book-- Thanks for writing it!
May 31, 2012
You can tell this was cowritten with another author wasn't nearly as good as his other books
January 5, 2013
Really liked it but I don't know why.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews