Big Time

by Marcel Montecino, Julie Rubenstein (Editor)

In the murderous world of big time gambling, New Orleans style, Sal D'Amore faces a desperate flight from the mob and a dangerous climb to pop-music stardom with the woman he loves

Genres: Mystery

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Arnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/202...

[John Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Cruise was interested in playing the lead character for a movie version. Montecino's agent got an advance so large that Marcel resumed his cocaine habit. He died of a heart attack in 1998. It's a good book, the likes of which could not be published today and probably based more on his personal life than The Crosskiller. Worth a read.

[Bob Box · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in 1992. Compulsive gambler and fine piano player Sal D'Amore has just lost $180,000 of the mob's money and they've come to collect. This fast paced adventure was one of my favorites that year.

[Will Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pure, sweaty, unadulterated, pulp trash. Found this book in an Asheville bookstore and the spine just spoke to me: BIG TIME with a little handgun underneath it. $2.09 later it was all mine. There are actually some really great moments in this book and I have to give it credit for being incredibly readable; I zoomed through it. It's not hard to imagine Tom Cruise and a bunch of other Hollywood freaks wanting to turn this into a movie -- the New Orleans chase and the Hollywood Reservoir sequences are straight out of a Michael Mann or William Friedkin or Ridley (or hell even Tony) Scott movie.

But it's also pretty trashy, very juvenile in a lot of ways. Many things are repeated over and over and over again; feels like an author who had just written a very successful, once-in-a-lifetime first book being given a blank check, no notes 2nd crack (which is what happened). There's a lot of book in here, maybe too much book honestly. But if you're into pulp and you like neo-noir and you're kind of a little freak, this is a hell of a page-turner. Really I'd say this is a solid 3.5 out of 5 but GoodReads doesn't have half stars because this site kinda sucks.

[Gabriel Napochni · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEST OF THE BEST NOVELS I´VE EVER READ!

[Paula Day Johns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a book to recommend to the reader who can get past the language and the raw descriptions of the story of a man, Sal, who seemingly falls into one death defying situation to another mixed with women, booze, and thugs.
In the middle of it all, the reader finds himself plotting, pulling, and cheering for Sal. This book is very descriptive, perhaps in some parts of the writing the description and detailing of certain things go above and beyond what is needed to the point, the reader may say, "okay, I get it!", but always the reader keeps turning the pages of this book, thinking, I have found a worthy read.
Marcel Montecino was certainly a writer, it is a great loss to the reading public that his death prevented further best sellers.

[Cole “BookShredder” Voyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fucked with this book Big Time. The entire story from beginning to end was intense. Marcel is very descriptive which allowed the reader to understand and feel the entirety of every situation. The way he told the story - splitting the book into smaller books was great. The first book about Geo Gemelli was a perfect example on how to tell an entire life story in 50 pages. Would totally recommend to anyone.

[Patti O'Hara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely the best novel ever! Simply incredible!

[Diksha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The smelly, yellow and tattered pages of a twenty-year old library copy of Big Time beckoned to me through the most-ignored shelf in the building. When I picked up this book, the librarian (who has become a good friend of mine over the years) said, "A sweet, nice girl like you won't enjoy this book". Okay, so obviously we're not friends because he doesn't know what a ruthless and filthy bitch I am. And yet, despite of being a filthy, ruthless bitch, I thought this book was quite... RAW and HARSH.

The plot goes like this - Sal D'Amore is a musician-turned-loser who screws up 'big time' by gambling with the money of the most terrifying family in New Orleans. So, Sal runs for his life, is told to do so by his friend Santo. While running and hiding and changing identities, Sal meets a horny, spoiled, teenage brat - Isabel. And Sal realises that Isabel is the voice to his busted lyrics. But it's not over. He ends up in deep, deep shit. Whether he gets out of it or sinks deeper is for you to read.

This novel has:
-Sex
-Violence
-Music
-Treachery
-Murder
-Rape
-Page-flipping action

What I wish this novel didn't have:
-Treachery (that was sad though bound to happen)
-Rape
-Paedophilia (screwing a minor is a strict no-no)

The characters... oh jeez. Everyone was horny! And I didn't like Isabel from the very start. Nor did I like Sal. My pity rested with Joe the Hack, Santo, Cathy, Yani and Giovanni.

What should have but didn't surprise me were the swear words employed. The females were all whores, cunts or sluts. And the worse the writer called a male character was faggot. You would think I would put the book down then and add it to my could-not-finish shelf. But it was too exciting! The suspense, the action, the curiosity to know how Sal is going to save his lazy ass - it was all too much for me to be offended by the narration! I didn't have time to do that. The book kept me turning pages till 3:30 am. By the end, I was like -



So, I didn't like the characters or the sexual violence. But the narration and the speed of events was thrilling. It was crude and homophobic, but it was entertaining - the way pulp fiction should be. And I am enjoying the fact that for once I didn't read something which had some significance for literature and needed a deep analysis. Um, three stars.

[Bruce Freedancer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to re-read this book before writing a proper review on it as it was at least 15 years ago that I read it. I will say it is a remarkable crime/thriller/dark novel by an author who died before his time. He only wrote 3 books and from what I've heard the other two are every bit as good as this one -which is really saying something.

It is not for the faint of heart. It is a brutal no compromise romp through a violent american criminal sub-culture and there is no doubt the author knew a lot about the subject matter. This statement is somewhat corroborated by a rare interview with the author on the L.A. Times:

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-10-1...

Do I recommend it? For the pure visceral entertainment value hell yes, but be warned it is a very dark and tragic story.

[Benja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenido, para pasar el rato. Nada destacable