A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself
William Boyle
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Goodfellas meets Thelma and Louise when an unlikely trio of women in New York find themselves banding together to escape the clutches of violent figures from their pasts. After Brooklyn mob widow Rena Ruggiero hits her eighty-year-old neighbor Enzio in the head with an ashtray when he makes an unwanted move on her, she embarks on a bizarre adventure. Taking off in Enzio's '62 Impala, she retreats to the Bronx home of her estranged daughter, Adrienne, and her granddaughter, Lucia, only to be turned away by Adrienne at the door. Their neighbor, Lacey "Wolfie" Wolfstein, a one-time Golden Age porn star and retired Florida Suncoast grifter, takes Rena in and befriends her. When Lucia discovers that Adrienne is planning to hit the road with her ex-boyfriend Richie, she figures Rena's her only way out of a life on the run with a mother she can't stand. But Richie has massacred a few members of the Brancaccio crime family for a big payday, and he drags even more trouble into the mix in the form of an unhinged enforcer named Crea. The stage is set for an explosion that will propel Rena, Wolfie, and Lucia down a strange path, each woman running from something and unsure what comes next. A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself is a screwball noir about finding friendship and family where you least expect it, in which William Boyle again draws readers into the familiar--and sometimes frightening--world in the shadows at the edges of New York's neighborhoods.
Product Details
Price
$25.95
$24.13
Publisher
Pegasus Crime
Publish Date
March 05, 2019
Pages
320
Dimensions
6.1 X 9.1 X 1.3 inches | 1.0 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781643130583
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About the Author
William Boyle is from Brooklyn, New York. His novels include: Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France; The Lonely Witness, which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, an Amazon Best Book of the Year; and, most recently, City of Margins, a Washington Post Best Thriller and Mystery Book of 2020. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.
Reviews
A brilliant and nasty piece of joyful ambiguity that I Ioved deeply. What a marvelous and unexpected bunch of female characters, in particular. With this one, William Boyle vaults into the big time, or he damn sure should.--Joe Lansdale, author of the Hap & Leonard series
It's the women who make this novel such a great read. They are glorious and mad, vulnerable, so human, and very, very funny.--Roddy Doyle, author of 'The Commitments, ' 'The Van, ' 'Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, ' 'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, ' and 'Smile'
Yowza, did I just maybe read a future crime fiction classic? Possibly. It has all the right elements. Great characters--two ex-porn stars, a 14-year-old girl, and a psycho with a sledgehammer--dialogue that tickles the ear, and a sense of place so vivid I thought I was reading in 3-D. And the plot! I'm not going to say anything other than 500,000 dollars in a briefcase and a frisky octogenarian are involved. My only regret? I read the book way too fast, just couldn't stop turning the pages. Oh well, there are worse things in life.--Pete Mock, McIntyre's Fine Books
Deploying an inimitable tone that packs sardonic storytelling atop action and adventure, with a side of character development, Boyle's voice works even when it feels like it shouldn't. It's just the right kind of too much.
Boyle is one of noir's most exciting voices, and with his newest book he injects a madcap road trip energy into his finely-tuned criminal world.
A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself is a thunderous locomotive of a novel, driven by remarkable characters and sparkling dialogue. A treat for fans of neo-noir, it's brimming with dark wit and piercing insight. Highly recommended.--Stuart Neville, national bestselling author
An addictive hardboiled crime novel. Boyle skillfully mixes a classic Westlake/Leonard-style caper with the powerful tale of three women facing the ghosts of their pasts.
A native of the borough, the author writes with an intimate knowledge of the place and its people. Boyle's characters don't just come alive on the page--they have lived there as well.
Comic crime capers are fun. Comic crime capers starring women are even more fun. William Boyle delivers some choice laughs and a terrific trio of felons. A road trip that's so much fun you don't want it to end.
Boyle's work is some of the finest in crime fiction and while he ticks every box each time out, the emphasis changes. Character and nonstop action are gloriously on the rampage here, as three very different women join forces to survive high-speed car chases, crashes, shootings, violent men and general bedlam. Boyle's dialogue snaps and his sense of place is top-notch. This roller-coaster madcap tragicomedy is a great gift to give yourself.
Boyle's latest novel is an Elmore Leonard-style caper that hits the ground running. With vintage car chases, warp speed energy and female bonding, this is funny, touching and exhilarating in all the right places.
An exquisite tale of female friendship combining thrills galore, dark humor, sparkling repartee, highly unpredictable twists at every turn of the meandering road, and a glorious sense of the ridiculous. Will have you chuckling from page to page.
Like tasty breadcrumbs through a sinister forest, Boyle strews his narrative with welcome cultural markers and references and more than a little bit of straight-talking philosophy. Boyle's noir novel is an appropriately dark tale of gangster life; it also shimmers with friendliness, affection, humor, and the myriad stories people tell themselves and others in order to survive
Boyle's fiction rises above the stereotypes of urban noir, not so much for the plot as for the quirky, flawed female characters with rich inner lives, the gritty dialog, and atmospheric street settings, in which authentic details abound. Offbeat humor leavens the mix and adds to the fun.-- (02/09/2019)
It's the women who make this novel such a great read. They are glorious and mad, vulnerable, so human, and very, very funny.--Roddy Doyle, author of 'The Commitments, ' 'The Van, ' 'Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, ' 'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, ' and 'Smile'
Yowza, did I just maybe read a future crime fiction classic? Possibly. It has all the right elements. Great characters--two ex-porn stars, a 14-year-old girl, and a psycho with a sledgehammer--dialogue that tickles the ear, and a sense of place so vivid I thought I was reading in 3-D. And the plot! I'm not going to say anything other than 500,000 dollars in a briefcase and a frisky octogenarian are involved. My only regret? I read the book way too fast, just couldn't stop turning the pages. Oh well, there are worse things in life.--Pete Mock, McIntyre's Fine Books
Deploying an inimitable tone that packs sardonic storytelling atop action and adventure, with a side of character development, Boyle's voice works even when it feels like it shouldn't. It's just the right kind of too much.
Boyle is one of noir's most exciting voices, and with his newest book he injects a madcap road trip energy into his finely-tuned criminal world.
A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself is a thunderous locomotive of a novel, driven by remarkable characters and sparkling dialogue. A treat for fans of neo-noir, it's brimming with dark wit and piercing insight. Highly recommended.--Stuart Neville, national bestselling author
An addictive hardboiled crime novel. Boyle skillfully mixes a classic Westlake/Leonard-style caper with the powerful tale of three women facing the ghosts of their pasts.
A native of the borough, the author writes with an intimate knowledge of the place and its people. Boyle's characters don't just come alive on the page--they have lived there as well.
Comic crime capers are fun. Comic crime capers starring women are even more fun. William Boyle delivers some choice laughs and a terrific trio of felons. A road trip that's so much fun you don't want it to end.
Boyle's work is some of the finest in crime fiction and while he ticks every box each time out, the emphasis changes. Character and nonstop action are gloriously on the rampage here, as three very different women join forces to survive high-speed car chases, crashes, shootings, violent men and general bedlam. Boyle's dialogue snaps and his sense of place is top-notch. This roller-coaster madcap tragicomedy is a great gift to give yourself.
Boyle's latest novel is an Elmore Leonard-style caper that hits the ground running. With vintage car chases, warp speed energy and female bonding, this is funny, touching and exhilarating in all the right places.
An exquisite tale of female friendship combining thrills galore, dark humor, sparkling repartee, highly unpredictable twists at every turn of the meandering road, and a glorious sense of the ridiculous. Will have you chuckling from page to page.
Like tasty breadcrumbs through a sinister forest, Boyle strews his narrative with welcome cultural markers and references and more than a little bit of straight-talking philosophy. Boyle's noir novel is an appropriately dark tale of gangster life; it also shimmers with friendliness, affection, humor, and the myriad stories people tell themselves and others in order to survive
Boyle's fiction rises above the stereotypes of urban noir, not so much for the plot as for the quirky, flawed female characters with rich inner lives, the gritty dialog, and atmospheric street settings, in which authentic details abound. Offbeat humor leavens the mix and adds to the fun.-- (02/09/2019)
