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South Beach: The Novel
Gabriel Tucker is a globe-trotting, trust fund–endowed twenty-nine-year-old who suddenly finds himself penniless and alone in the world, except for an old Miami Beach apartment building named the Venus De Milo Arms, the last thing of value left to him by his now-vanished family. Lacking skills or resources, he heads to Miami Beach to reconstruct his life, finding himself neighbors with an unlikely mix of tenants: an elderly Holocaust survivor, a lip-synching drag queen, a cynical two-bit gossip columnist, and a rebellious young performance artist who will eventually capture his heart. Within days, Gabriel is thrust into the outrageous world of South Beach, Miami of the nineties: temptations, quick fortunes, mountains of drugs, notorious murders, nonstop sex, and beautiful women (and men) for sale (or rent) are the order of the day. He is a ringside witness to the excesses and intrigues of Italian fashion empires, Cuban refugee supermodels, rapacious German developers, old-fashioned crooked politicians, and a cast of characters that would make Caligula blush. It is in South Beach that Gabriel will eventually discover the long-buried mysteries of his family and find a soul he never imagined he had and a love he never dreamed he deserved.
- GenresFiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 21, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 2, 2010
If Paris is a moveable feast, South Beach is an all-night party.
I know exactly when I caught South Beach fever. 1984. Picture this. Two Miami Vice detectives zipping along Ocean Drive in a red Ferrari, crashing through Biscayne Bay in a cigarette boat and daring to wear T-shirts under their Armani suits. Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. They were smart, sexy, invincible.
Flash forward to the present day. Writers love South Beach because the milieu is the perfect setting for a novel–it’s hip, edgy, filled with possibilities for compelling plots and outrageous characters. Mix one part Art Deco, one part cubanita culture, one part surreal fantasy and you’ve got a book. put their families first.
If you like characters with a dangerous edge, Brian Antoni’s book, SOUTH BEACH: THE NOVEL (Grove/Atlantic paperback, 277 pages) fits the bill. Characters change, morph, re-invent themselves because in Miami “there’s the feeling you can be whatever you want to be.” The main character, Gabriel Tucker, is thrust into the strange and wonderful world of South Beach, when he inherits an historical apartment building called the Venus de Milo Arms, home to a bizarre cast of drag queens, artists and writers.
South Beach is just as tantalizing today as it was in the days of Crockett and Tubbs. Pick up a So Be novel, grab a mojito and immerse yourself in a little fantasy as you catch some rays. Perfecto.
I know exactly when I caught South Beach fever. 1984. Picture this. Two Miami Vice detectives zipping along Ocean Drive in a red Ferrari, crashing through Biscayne Bay in a cigarette boat and daring to wear T-shirts under their Armani suits. Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. They were smart, sexy, invincible.
Flash forward to the present day. Writers love South Beach because the milieu is the perfect setting for a novel–it’s hip, edgy, filled with possibilities for compelling plots and outrageous characters. Mix one part Art Deco, one part cubanita culture, one part surreal fantasy and you’ve got a book. put their families first.
If you like characters with a dangerous edge, Brian Antoni’s book, SOUTH BEACH: THE NOVEL (Grove/Atlantic paperback, 277 pages) fits the bill. Characters change, morph, re-invent themselves because in Miami “there’s the feeling you can be whatever you want to be.” The main character, Gabriel Tucker, is thrust into the strange and wonderful world of South Beach, when he inherits an historical apartment building called the Venus de Milo Arms, home to a bizarre cast of drag queens, artists and writers.
South Beach is just as tantalizing today as it was in the days of Crockett and Tubbs. Pick up a So Be novel, grab a mojito and immerse yourself in a little fantasy as you catch some rays. Perfecto.
May 11, 2008
I liked this book so much... I blurbed it!
"Glamor and sex. Champagne and ecstasy. Finally a South Beach diet I can stick to."
"Glamor and sex. Champagne and ecstasy. Finally a South Beach diet I can stick to."
June 29, 2020
I love South Beach and I did like the locations pointed out in this book even though sadly many many are gone now. The Art Deco District is still as pretty and I can’t wait to go back.
That said, this was not my type of book with all of the drugs and partying. Too many stereotypes and generic characters for me. Still it was a fun book to read for a change of pace.
That said, this was not my type of book with all of the drugs and partying. Too many stereotypes and generic characters for me. Still it was a fun book to read for a change of pace.
October 26, 2024
Such a beautifully tragic story. Definitely not a light hearted read. At first I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this story but then I fell in love with the characters and their tragic lives and love of one another. A lot of drugs,sex and homoerotic SBDM , but also love and survival of a group of people considered outcasts. An interesting insight into a world many of us would never know.
February 17, 2010
I recommend this book to those socialites who lived the South Beach experience of the 90s. If you weren't there, you might not fathom the feeling this book portrays for those of us who were there. This is a fictional novel based on factual events. The author describes the club scene of the 90s, including the life and death of the legendary Warsaw Ballroom, Glam Slam, Salvation, the remodeling of Lincoln Road, the preservation of the Art Deco buildings in South Beach, the Holocaust Memorial, the Queen of South Beach, Chris Paciello and Ingrid Caseres's legendary world famous Liquid nightclub, and so many more. I lived vicariously in the South Beach nightlife of the 90s by reading this book.
July 7, 2012
What "South Beach: The Novel" excels at is bringing to life a vanished time in the history of Miami. When South Beach was between the development booms of mid-century and the millennium and filled with a diaspora of different peoples. Antoni brings this world to life in short accessible chapters covering a wide range of this varied population and tracing the silvery arc of this unique time.
April 27, 2016
A location read, woke me up from the pastel-surfaced, wave-kissed, gentrified SOBE, brought me excitements from her true glorious past. "Sunstroker", at the beginning and end, and inserted where the developing story needs, is the key, perhaps, to enhance the literary value, and make the story less main-stream or beyond a voyeuristic enjoyment.
December 31, 2019
Having worked in South Beach during the transition from “God’s waiting room” to the play ground of the stars this delightful book nails it! He manages to capture the personality of the place. This is a must read for anyone who has been even a minor part of this captivating place in the sun.
May 21, 2008
Sizzling!
May 21, 2008
From one pioneer to another...true to life tales from the deco trenches
January 15, 2010
Pretty intersting book - not my world, but totally worth picking up. To get through it, think of it as a soap opeara.
April 9, 2011
There are times when this quirky novel is almost great.
June 2, 2016
awsome. I highly recommend this book to all who love to read. It placed me there at South Beach from the start all the way to the end!
May 8, 2015
great ups and downs, plot twists and the ending left me wanting more...
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews