NOT SO WISEGUYS: CHARLIE STELLA'S JOEY PISS POT

I've always meant to read Charlie Stella. Believed to have some up close knowledge of the New York Mafia, he applies what he knows to character driven books that focus on the work-a-day lives of its members. It is an unromantic, yet often humorous, take on the gangster yarn. When Stark House Press released his latest, Joey Piss Pot, I grabbed the opportunity to finally read him.

The story has several plot lines and characters that intertwine. At the center of it all is a friendship between two aging men, Joseph Gallo, who lost his son to a mob hit, and Artie Lange, a retired cop who feels responsible for the murder. When Artie hears that Joe's grandson Chris is getting involved with some wiseguys, he shadows him. What he doesn't know is Chris operates undercover for The FBI.

All get drawn into the craziness of a inter mafia family war. Much of it is due to the cheating behavior of Doris, the wife of incarcerated mobster Carmine Mantalvo. One of her affairs is even with capo Jerry Galante. Vendetta's get out of hand and loose ends need to be cut, keeping Artie, Chris, Joseph, Doris, a reluctant mob lawyer, an ambitious D.A., two Chinese American thugs, and a cold blooded button man busy and in danger.

Stella spins all these plates for an engaging tale. He sets up all the players and their motivations. As the criminal plays ping-pong across the city and against each other they both broaden the story to a bigger picture as the plot tightens around Artie and Chris. The mechanizations, that the characters are only partly aware of, create both suspense and black humor.

Stella does everything he can to take the piss (pun only half intended) out of the mafia. They are guys living in the ruins of what was, play acting with real bullets and deadly consequences mainly just to keep up appearances. They hold onto nostalgia and machismo because that's all that's left. Petty emotions veer out of control because no one is really in control. The only power They really have comes that few pay attention to them or really care.

Joey Piss Pot is both sweeping and intimate, It takes a panoramic view of a Mafia family and those trying to close it down in a Trump era New York. It looks into the workings of organized crime that come off pretty disorganized. Charlie Stella argues it's no less dangerous.