Product Description

Gone Bamboo pits Henry, a CIA-trained assassin, and Frances, his hard-nosed, hard-bodied wife against two governments and a cross-dressing mafioso. Henry and Frances have gone bamboo-living an idyllic, retired life in the Caribbean-but when Donnie, a powerful capo relocated by the Federal Witness Protection Program, inadvertently jeopardizes their plan, all hell breaks loose. Despite the fact that Henry once tried to kill Donnie, the two join forces against the transvestite mob boss looking to ace Donnie. But things aren't going to be so easy...

Written in Anthony Bourdain's signature style-raucous, funny, a bit vicious, and always fun- Gone Bamboo is a feast of murder, hitmen, and the hitwomen they love. Reminiscent of Dashiell Hammet's Nick and Nora, Bourdain's Henry and Frances are a tough-talking, unlikely couple that will win you over-if they don't kill you first.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45411 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Kirkus Reviews
For his second course, Bourdain, novelist (Bone in the Throat, 1995) and chef (at Sullivan's, in Manhattan), dishes up a sorry, soggy mess of a stew in which a good-hearted hit man finds himself on the spot with both mob chieftains and law-enforcement agencies. Hired by an ambitious cross-dressing mafioso named Pazz Calabrese to eliminate his two immediate superiors, Henry Denard dispatches one but only wounds the other, D'Andrea (Donnie Wicks) Balistierian aging capo di tutti capi in New York. After returning to Saint Martin, the idyllic West Indian haven he calls home, the hired gun (a decorated Vietnam vet who went on to work for the CIA) learns his wounded target has turned informant and will testify against former partners in crime. What's more, an accommodating interpretation of the Witness Protection Act allows Donnie Wicks (and a small army of US marshals) to take up residence on Saint Martin. Concerned that he and his hardcase wife Frances may have to find another place to live, Henry talks his way inside the former don's compound for a meet. Not to worry, the elderly outlaw has the nothing-personal aspect of gangdom's business down pat, and he soon takes a shine to the professional killer as well as to his lovely, lethal lady. In the meantime, the expatriate godfather's former underlings mount a deadly campaign to silence him. In the wake of a furious assault on his island home (which costs six feds and a like number of Dominican nationals their lives), Donnie Wicks (now under the protection of venal French officials) is reported dead. As a favor to the American authorities cheated of a show trial, Henry heads north to waste the kinky Calabrese and his top lieutenants with a light anti-tank weapon on a New Jersey construction site. At the close, he's drinking and living it up with Frances and Donnie Wicks at his Caribbean hideaway. In the parlance of cuisine: tripe. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"Bourdain establishes himself as a new master of the wiseass crime comedy." -- Publishers Weekly

"Bourdain serves up a delectable concoction sure to appeal..." -- Denver Post

About the Author
Anthony Bourdain is the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York City. He is the author of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly and Bone in the Throat

Customer Reviews

Bourdain Drops a Notch
Maybe three stars is a little low. However in rating a book by an author whose previous work was stellar you can't help but be biased. "Gone Bamboo" is an above average novel with strange characters, a good storyline and some great action. However Bourdain gets away from what made his first book so good. The gangster feel is not as pronounced in this book and the restaurant setting is nonexistent.

"Gone Bamboo" is about semi retired hit man Henry Denard and his wife Frances. In the begining Henry is hired for one last hit on a mob boss Charlie Wagons. After botching the job Henry and Frances are hiding out on a tropical island. When who moves in next door Charlie Wagons himself, also hiding from the mob in the witness protection program. Henry know the mafia will come looking for Charlie and realizes that he may be found too. Henry befriends the ex-mobster and when the time comes for conflict the action really gets jumping.

The major fault of this novel is that it is hard to like Henry or Frances. They are lazy,drug users, which when the actions starts makes it hard to believe their reactions. If you consider reading this book, I strongly suggest you read "Bone in the Throat" first. There are about a half dozen characters who cross over in this book including Tommy Pagano the main character from "Bone In the Throat".

If Tony Bourdain cooks as well as he writes...
I'll move to New York and eat at Les Halles twice a week. Mid-week, of course.

I loved "Bone in the Throat," and was delighted to find major characters re-appearing in "Gone Bamboo." I read it in an afternoon, and heck! I didn't think it was too hardboiled. In fact,I did cry in a couple of places. Like Elmore Leonard, Bourdain knows how to write dialogue. He also knows how to create characters, and write a pageturning plot. The sense of place, in this case St. Martin, is done so well that I could feel the sand between my toes, smell the barbecue shacks and want to run to the fidge hoping to find a bottle of Red Stripe.

Bourdain has a nice touch especially with creating strong female characters. Frances, the female protagonist, is now my idol and role model.

Sophomore Slump
A rather disappointing followup to "Bone in the Throat," this mob caper never reaches the breezy good humor of the Bourdain's debut. There are some decently interesting characters (a crossdressing mobster and a legendary ancient French commando being two), and some offbeat happenings, but the climax is wholly unsatisfying (at least to me). One redeeming aspect is that Bourdain doesn't shy away from killing some of the characters you least suspect will die. Definitely read "Bone in the Throat," before this, as some of characters overlap, and this comes second chronologically.