Amy's Robot

NYT reviews Random Family a

NYT reviews Random Family a new book by a woman who spent 10 years hanging out with a single Puerto Rican family in the Bronx. The books seems very interesting, even if the people she writes about never seem to much to improve their lives. She seems to squeeze a lot into her writing, if this Times summary of one relationship is indicative:

Jessica enjoyed a kind of luck with a local Mr. Big called Boy George, who was a heroin dealer with his own brand of the stuff, Obsession -- the little glassines even sported their own red-stamped logo -- and rich, in a doomed, flash sort of way. While still in his early 20's he had a fleet of BMW's and Mercedeses, some of them said to be custom-rigged with Bondian gadgets like strobe lights that could blind a pursuer or devices that spewed out tacks with the flip of a hidden switch. At a party for his employees, on which LeBlanc reports with her usual density of detail, guests dined aboard a rented yacht on steak tartare, prime rib and skewered lamb. George dispatched employees to Jessica's roach-ridden apartment to fill her family's refrigerator with food, took her on getaways to the Poconos, and gave her a job first as a mill girl -- crushing bricks of heroin into powder -- then as a gal Friday, catering to his exacting tastes in clothes. He also beat her for disobeying him, and kept her locked in the apartment he rented for her.

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posted by adm at 8:58 PM | #