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Johnny Porno
It s the summer of 1973. Disco is King and the New York mob is at the peak of its power. John Albano, an out-of-work construction worker with child support and rent payments he can t keep up with, is driving for a local car service when his quick hands and honorable nature place him in the middle of a perfect storm of danger. He s just trying to make ends meet with a weekend stint counting heads and collecting the take at illegal screenings of the recently banned porno film, Deep Throat, for Mafioso Eddie Vento. But a devious ex-wife, her more devious ex-husband, the wiseguys behind the film (including one obnoxious wannabe with a frenzied beef for Albano), the Fleetwood Eldorado used in the opening scene of the porno film and a host of cops (both good and bad including the deranged one Albano punched out) snowball into an often humorous, sometimes violent, action-packed trip back to the year Willie Mays hit his last home run. This is the world of Johnny Porno.
340 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2010
3 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Charlie Stella
22 books26 followersCarmelo Stella is an author long familiar with the street life of New York City, which figures substantially in his writing. His work includes plays, performed off-off-Broadway, his debut novel called Eddie's World and Jimmy Bench-press, also published by Hale. He lives in New Jersey.
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May 12, 2018This copy is signed by the author Charlie Stella.
April 11, 2024
Set in 1973 with the advent of the designated hitter in baseball and, more importantly for this novel’s purposes, the explosion of the underground movie Deep Throat starring Linda Lovelace across movie screens, generally by means of bootleg copies funneled by the mafia to showing locations. As told in the introduction, Deep Throat was a movie idea pitched by a Queens hairdresser to a couple of New York wiseguys who fronted $25,000 to make it and would go on to earn more than $600 million, much of it a windfall to the mafia. Apparently, Lovelace only got $1,500 to $2,500 and lifelong notoriety for her part. It provides the backdrop for this ferocious crime novel set in Queens and Long Island of all places where the title-figure of John Albano, a two-time loser, who lost his five-hundred-dollar a week construction gig when he punched out the foreman and now earns some bucks counting heads at underground showings of the movie so as to match the take. When his predecessor nicknamed “Tommy Porno” disappears (and is later found in a dumpster), John is promoted to film distributor and money collector from head counter. Of course, to his everlasting regret, John is now nicknamed Johnny Porno, which he hates. And now John has a job bringing the money to the wiseguys after the filmings, armed though with the knowledge that the last guy who was caught skimming from the wiseguys ended up drinking the rest of his meals through a straw and there is of course the disappearance of Tommy Deluca (“Tommy Porno”) who was eventually found with his hands cut off.
The way he got this job though was when he walked into a bar bemoaning his inability to make his child support payments to Nancy (who is now about to end her third marriage to Nathan and still banging his first husband Louis, a compulsive gambler always on the hook to some shark or another). Thing was undercover officer Billy and his wife Kathleen would get their kicks when she came on to other guys and then left them hanging and John did not know she was married when he started hitting her up. When Billy came out of the backroom of the wiseguys’ bar and interfered, John let Billy have it. John’s payment for causing the ruckus was to work it off counting heads at the porno showings. Billy got busted from the force and now has it bad for John, so bad in fact he is ready to take John off the board forever. John, though, has apparently got a temper problem and also gets into it with another Italian in the same bar, one who won’t forget getting knocked down in front of his bosses, particularly Eddie Vento.
There are a lot of names at work in this novel and they all cross paths at one point or another with the focal point being the movie Deep Throat, John and the money he is collecting for the tough guys, John’s ex-wife and the trouble she causes, Nancy’s first ex, her current husband, crooked cops on the take, Vento’s girlfriend who unbeknownst to him is working off a bust and recording him….. The point is that for John you know if you have read any of these kind of crime novels no matter how hard he works it is all going to go wrong and he is always going to be owing big money to the wiseguys and always on the run and always being betrayed.
Stella captures so clearly and decisively the spirit of the early Seventies and the manic world John is swept up in.
The way he got this job though was when he walked into a bar bemoaning his inability to make his child support payments to Nancy (who is now about to end her third marriage to Nathan and still banging his first husband Louis, a compulsive gambler always on the hook to some shark or another). Thing was undercover officer Billy and his wife Kathleen would get their kicks when she came on to other guys and then left them hanging and John did not know she was married when he started hitting her up. When Billy came out of the backroom of the wiseguys’ bar and interfered, John let Billy have it. John’s payment for causing the ruckus was to work it off counting heads at the porno showings. Billy got busted from the force and now has it bad for John, so bad in fact he is ready to take John off the board forever. John, though, has apparently got a temper problem and also gets into it with another Italian in the same bar, one who won’t forget getting knocked down in front of his bosses, particularly Eddie Vento.
There are a lot of names at work in this novel and they all cross paths at one point or another with the focal point being the movie Deep Throat, John and the money he is collecting for the tough guys, John’s ex-wife and the trouble she causes, Nancy’s first ex, her current husband, crooked cops on the take, Vento’s girlfriend who unbeknownst to him is working off a bust and recording him….. The point is that for John you know if you have read any of these kind of crime novels no matter how hard he works it is all going to go wrong and he is always going to be owing big money to the wiseguys and always on the run and always being betrayed.
Stella captures so clearly and decisively the spirit of the early Seventies and the manic world John is swept up in.
December 12, 2021
A New York Tale Of The Streets
Set in the New York City of 1973, Charlie Stella's "Johnny Porno" is a crime story of low life and the mob and of the attempt to get on with one's life. The book centers around "Deep Throat", starring Linda Lovelace, which became the first pornographic movie to achieve widespread notoriety. The movie went underground in New York after a judge declared it obscene, thus helping the mob, which had bankrolled the venture, to reap enormous profits in underground viewings and related illicit activities.
The hero of this novel, John Albano, is known as Johnny Porno because he works on the weekends as a runner distributing "Deep Throat" for the mob. His predecessor as a runner, known as Tommy Porno, had met a violent end for skimming receipts. John Albano hates his nickname and has never seen the film. He takes the job because he needs to make ends meet. With a sharp temper, Albano has recently punched out a corrupt police office and lost his job as a carpenter. He has child support payments to meet to his wife Nancy. Nancy had been married once before to a man named Louis whom she continues to see and is married for a third time to Nathan, a classical musician. Albano has long lacked female companionship and begins a promising relationship with Melinda, a waitress. As the novel progresses, he becomes more deeply drawn into the world of the mob and of porn.
The book is replete with characters from the mob, centering around Eddie Vento, the highest person in the organization that figures in the story. The reader sees from the inside the world of Vento, his henchmen, together with associated loan sharks, thugs, and mistresses. The book also includes a variety of police characters, some legitimate and some in the pay of the mob. Frequently it is difficult to tell which is which. John Albano, who simply wants to do his job, distribute the film, and be done with it, makes enemies, some who see him as an easy mark, some as a scapegoat, and some as a subject for a personal vendetta. The book is filled with double crosses and triple crosses as Albano's enemies work against him and against each other. The book emphasizes the crasser parts of human nature together with some examples of decency and honesty.
The novel is heavily and perhaps too intricately plotted. The story lines unfold in short chapters, each of which include brief sections which switch from one set of characters to another. Some of the specifics are difficult to follow. Ultimately the story lines tie together. The dialogue is streetwise and tough and the many characters are sharply portrayed. The book is made by its atmosphere with the bars, shoddy restaurants, the streets, and the roads. It is thick with the mob and with the seediness of porn and those who watch it and those who are engaged in it. The book held my interest and kept me going to its conclusion. I wanted to see the seemingly hapless Johnny Porno succeed.
"Johnny Porno" is Charlie Stella's seventh published novel and the first with a historical setting. Stella wrote the introduction to this novel in which he describes his writing experiences and the course of his life which, for a time, gave him first-hand experience with the types of characters and activities he describes. As a student, Stella learned the lesson that "Once you see your name in print, you'll always want it there"; which has served him well as he pursued his dreams of becoming a writer. I enjoyed reading this modern, gritty example of a crime genre novel.
Robin Friedman
Set in the New York City of 1973, Charlie Stella's "Johnny Porno" is a crime story of low life and the mob and of the attempt to get on with one's life. The book centers around "Deep Throat", starring Linda Lovelace, which became the first pornographic movie to achieve widespread notoriety. The movie went underground in New York after a judge declared it obscene, thus helping the mob, which had bankrolled the venture, to reap enormous profits in underground viewings and related illicit activities.
The hero of this novel, John Albano, is known as Johnny Porno because he works on the weekends as a runner distributing "Deep Throat" for the mob. His predecessor as a runner, known as Tommy Porno, had met a violent end for skimming receipts. John Albano hates his nickname and has never seen the film. He takes the job because he needs to make ends meet. With a sharp temper, Albano has recently punched out a corrupt police office and lost his job as a carpenter. He has child support payments to meet to his wife Nancy. Nancy had been married once before to a man named Louis whom she continues to see and is married for a third time to Nathan, a classical musician. Albano has long lacked female companionship and begins a promising relationship with Melinda, a waitress. As the novel progresses, he becomes more deeply drawn into the world of the mob and of porn.
The book is replete with characters from the mob, centering around Eddie Vento, the highest person in the organization that figures in the story. The reader sees from the inside the world of Vento, his henchmen, together with associated loan sharks, thugs, and mistresses. The book also includes a variety of police characters, some legitimate and some in the pay of the mob. Frequently it is difficult to tell which is which. John Albano, who simply wants to do his job, distribute the film, and be done with it, makes enemies, some who see him as an easy mark, some as a scapegoat, and some as a subject for a personal vendetta. The book is filled with double crosses and triple crosses as Albano's enemies work against him and against each other. The book emphasizes the crasser parts of human nature together with some examples of decency and honesty.
The novel is heavily and perhaps too intricately plotted. The story lines unfold in short chapters, each of which include brief sections which switch from one set of characters to another. Some of the specifics are difficult to follow. Ultimately the story lines tie together. The dialogue is streetwise and tough and the many characters are sharply portrayed. The book is made by its atmosphere with the bars, shoddy restaurants, the streets, and the roads. It is thick with the mob and with the seediness of porn and those who watch it and those who are engaged in it. The book held my interest and kept me going to its conclusion. I wanted to see the seemingly hapless Johnny Porno succeed.
"Johnny Porno" is Charlie Stella's seventh published novel and the first with a historical setting. Stella wrote the introduction to this novel in which he describes his writing experiences and the course of his life which, for a time, gave him first-hand experience with the types of characters and activities he describes. As a student, Stella learned the lesson that "Once you see your name in print, you'll always want it there"; which has served him well as he pursued his dreams of becoming a writer. I enjoyed reading this modern, gritty example of a crime genre novel.
Robin Friedman
June 8, 2011
Johnny Albano is up sh!t creek without a paddle, fast approaching rocky rapids and a steep waterfall drop. The proverbial creek being his life as a hard luck ex-union carpenter forced into running porn reels from venue to venue for chump change in order to scrounge up enough cash to pay bills and child support. The rocky rapids - the unsavoury characters out to do him harm, first there's the disgraced corrupt ex-cop he punched out in a mob bar, mob mule Nick Santorra whose loud mouth led to a knuckle sandwich and a serious case of revenge, and lastly Louis - the first husband of Johnny's ex-wife Nancy whose got a money making scheme which could end up with Johnny sleeping with the fishes. The waterfall - mob boss Eddie Ventro who stands to loose a large amount of funds should the movie distribution Johnny is responsible for goes wayward. Focusing around the infamous movie Deep Throat, 'Johnny Porno' (title character given the name as per his distribution of the movie) is a fast paced mob romp laced with black humour, human elements (Nancy and her conquests and wrong doings spring to mind) and good old fashioned story telling. This is the second time in as many years I've read the book and plan to do so countless times in the future - its just that good - 5 stars.
September 25, 2016
Schön komplex erzählte Story um einen gutgläubigen Kerl, der alles richtig machen will. Blöderweise hat die Mafia hier auch ihre Hände im Spiel. Der Klappentext ließ mich eine abgedrehte, kurzweilige Gangsterstory vermuten, was auch fein gewesen wäre, aber ich war positiv überrascht, dass "Johnny Porno" mit so einer sehr dicht erzählten und fein verstrickten Handlung aufwarten konnte. Cooler Roman!
i-get-the-picture
January 27, 2014I read over 100 pages of this, and I am still bored. So time to move on... The writing is not nearly as good as the blurbs suggest. It gets clunky, and some of the scenes are artificial and unbelievable. It's no George Higgins.
September 6, 2017
No, it's not that kind of book. It's a sharply written thriller about mob wars in the 1970s over vast sums of money flowing from the showing of "Deep Throat" (the movie, not the FBI man in the raincoat in the garage).
Charlie Stella matches and sometimes exceeds the late, great Elmore Leonard with a sharp ear for dialogue. The recreation of that seedy era is matched by a working-class hero whose wit and sharp elbows keep him ahead -- just barely -- of crime clans who are willing to murder over a single-night's movie receipts.
I'm going to have to read the rest of Stella's oeuvre.
Charlie Stella matches and sometimes exceeds the late, great Elmore Leonard with a sharp ear for dialogue. The recreation of that seedy era is matched by a working-class hero whose wit and sharp elbows keep him ahead -- just barely -- of crime clans who are willing to murder over a single-night's movie receipts.
I'm going to have to read the rest of Stella's oeuvre.
April 1, 2024
This is a great read, Charlie Stella can write, I have read all his books and for some reason had not read this one. Now i have and its great, dont miss this
May 6, 2012
Johnny Porno is an ambitious novel, telling a quite complex story from the multiple perspectives of a fairly large cast. That it hangs together without becoming incoherent or the reader getting lost is testament to Stella’s skill as a writer. And whilst relatively slow at the start, as various characters and subplots are set in place, the story gently and insistently tugs the reader along. By the end, it is cantering having turned into a real page-turner. Interestingly, nearly every single scene could be published as a standalone piece of flash fiction. Whilst the plotting is very good, creating a believable story and recreating the sense of place and social relations of 1973 New York, where the novel excels is with respect to characterization and the various social interactions. All of Stella’s characters are fully realised with clearly defined personalities, traits, and motivations. Few are pleasant company, but all are vividly portrayed with a fine eye for social realism. How they interact is very well done, especially the dialogue which is excellent: reading the conversations feels as if you’re eavesdropping. There are a number of references to George V Higgins in the book and Stella is a worthy successor. In short, Johnny Porno was an engrossing read.
November 26, 2016
"Johnny Porno" to dobra, przyjemna lektura – choć ze względu na brutalność scen i niekiedy wulgarny język nie dla wszystkich. Akcja rozkręca się stopniowo, by w swoich ostatnich rozdziałach wręcz porwać czytelnika i wbić go w fotel. Kiedy się je czyta wręcz nie ma możliwości, by odłożyć książkę na bok i zająć się czymś innym. Siedzi się i czyta aż do momentu, kiedy dociera się do ostatnich zdań. I to jest bardzo duży plus. Wielowątkowość i mnogość bohaterów mogą początkowo sprawiać nieco chaotyczne wrażenie, lecz sytuacja bardzo szybko się klaruje i wraz z dochodzeniem do finału poszczególne wątki znajdują swoje zakończenie, skądinąd przemyślane. Nie jest to historia na miarę "Ojca chrzestnego" Mario Puzo, ale na pewno dostarczy rozrywki na kilka zimowych wieczorów.
Całość na: http://wiedzma-czyta.blogspot.com/201...
Całość na: http://wiedzma-czyta.blogspot.com/201...
January 14, 2013
Cheapskates, the Stella book I read last year, was just a warm-up for this. The slow build up to an incredibly explosive finale, the time and place, the Law & Order style pacing, the book is just fantastic. Amazing crime fiction.
March 18, 2014
The book was a little on the raw side, but had interesting takes on the low life mob gang scene in New York. Not really pornographic in any titillating fashion. Sometimes a little hard to follow as the author skips quickly between different characters. probably not worth reading.
March 6, 2012
Inspire of it's title, this book about the mob in the 70's is well written and interesting.
April 18, 2011
Awesome! Charlie Stella is a terrific writer.
December 21, 2015
This book was about 100 pages too long and had about 4 too many characters in it. It honestly kind of ruins the book.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews