The Mercury Man

by Frank Gioia

THE MERCURY MAN is a collection of thirty-six memoir narratives about growing up on the streets of Brooklyn in an Italian working-class family in the 1950s and early '60s with his doo-wop singing, gang fighting, sexually provocative, and drug abusing crew. In this intimate collection, Frank Gioia shines a light on the offbeat, unusual, and destructive with the sounds and texture of an earlier time and place. "Frank Gioia is a stylistic writer in league with such greats as Raymond Chandler and Damon Runyon, the success of his work measured not solely by plot and story, but intriguingly by the authentic rhythms of his discourse. Read "Food for Thought" and feel the pain of a boy's heartbreak over his father's infidelity. Or, "Fat Boy" and remember the humiliation of rejection. THE MERCURY MAN is a singular work of art."--Joan Embree, author of Summer of the Stolen Dog "With this irresistible collection of stories, Frank Gioia drags you into the past he lived and that hasn't let him go. His characters glow with incandescence amid scenarios that cut with the sharpness of the blade initiating him into his gang, the Halsey Bops. We follow the tough-talking Catholic kid shooting pool with his guys and abandoned by his heartbreaking dad, THE MERCURY MAN. This was his world. The bitter and the poisonous, but also the sweet. He doesn't hold back, and we are the richer for it."--Padme Lake, author of (as Amy Tanner) The Virgin of Hopeless Causes "Frank Gioia's collection of short narratives, THE MERCURY MAN, recreates his coming of age in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn in the 1950s and the year he spent in Vietnam in the 1960s. Gioia's stories are slices of life served up skillfully in an authentic and astute, streetwise voice that take us on a journey of remembrance and self-discovery. They are bitter-sweet tales of betrayal and addiction mixed with moments of heartbreak and humor that awaken the human spirit. Together, they convey the taste of another time and place, in a Brooklyn that no longer exists, but that the author has fully and lovingly experienced"--Lara Gularte, Poet Laureate of El Dorado County, CA Literary Nonfiction. Essay.

120 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2023

Reviews

[Aïda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unexpected read that introduced me to Brooklyn in the '50s. Lovely narrated glimpses of the author's passage from childhood to adulthood. The care and sentiment of what happens is palpable and moves you in different ways. For me, it was sadness in some of the stories, with what's said and what's not; it was surprise when I compared that childhood to that of Spanish children in the '50s. Childhoods I'm more familiar with than their American counterparts. Baby boomers all? I beg to differ. And reactions of confusion as I tried to understand the slang and the cultural references. 1950's North American feels very different from 1950's Europe. WE might be called "the West", but we're worlds apart. My favourite stories were definitely those set in the heart of the extended family, the gatherings, the food, the traditions, the language, the connections with cousins, uncles and aunts and all the rest. Simply lovely.