More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA
From Publishers Weekly
Set mostly in the Borscht Belt, Adler's satiric take on 1930s New York gangsters falls short of the mark set by such other novels of his as The War of the Roses. Mickey Fine, an itinerant entertainer known as a tumler, has landed a gig at a Catskill hotel frequented by some of the leading thugs of the day. He falls for Mutzie Feder, a frustrated young woman from Brooklyn who's ended up as the girlfriend of Pittsburgh Phil Strauss (aka Pep) after a makeover so she looks like Jean Harlow. As Fine's feelings for Mutzie grow, he runs afoul of the jealous Pep and must develop a plan to free her from the life of prostitution the gangster has planned for her.ΓΒ At times Adler overdoes the Brooklynese dialogue (Certain tings make me crazy. Like sweet liddle canaries who can't keep der lips clamped shut), while some readers may find the parodic element makes it hard to engage emotionally with the characters. (Mar.)
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From Booklist
Two naΓ―fs meet at a resort in the Catskills in the 1930s. Mickey is looking for a summer job as a comicβcumβsocial director, and Mutzie is hoping to escape her humdrum existence to experienceΒ aΒ more glamorous life that she sees in the movies. Innocently, she becomes a girlfriend of a big-time hood. The evidence is soon undeniable that Mickey and Mutzie are getting more deeply involved with mobsters, their lives are in danger, and they need to escape. Despite the 1930βs gangster movieβlike (though raunchier) text, Weiner manages a credible reading. He easily imitates New York mobsters and usually, but not always, avoids exaggeration. Overall, his reading skills deserve better material; the plot is somewhat predictable and the characters stereotypical. Optioned for a film, the story should find an audience. --Karen Harris