Head Games

“Vinnie’s Head, by debut novelist Marc Lecard, brings gonzo noir to [New York’s] Long Island,” enthuses James R. Winter in his review of that new novel, posted today in January Magazine. He goes on to write that Lecard “has penned one of the fastest, most ridiculous, and funniest romps of 2007 so far.”

The story is certainly one of the more twisted we’ve seen all year. It involves a severed head, caught off the end of a town dock by a small-town crook, Johnnie LoDuco, who just lost his best friend to gut-toting mobsters, after Johnnie “borrowed” that pal’s identity in pulling off a convenience store heist. Then there’s the informercial doctor who had been planning to run off to Paraguay, after pulling off a credit-card scam with Johnnie and his friend--a doc who just killed someone for the motel suite in which she and Johnnie are hiding out. And don’t forget the giant bounty hunter named Stosh, or the mobster with the cute cognomen “Worm Lips,” or the dreadlocked computer-hacking video-store clerk, or the serial murderer-turned-private eye, or ...

Well, that’s enough to prove Winter’s point, that “Vinnie’s Head is a lesson in the absurd,” delivered “with tongue firmly planted in cheek.” You can read the full review here.