Rating: 
Summary: So close to perfect.
Review: After devouring the much-heralded "Kitchen Confidential" and "Bone in the Throat" as well as the underrated "Gone Bamboo," Tony Bourdain quickly became my favorite author. Tony's style is so readable, his fiction's underworld heroes strangely loveable, and plotlines so addictive. I freaked out with excitement when I saw that Tony had written a new piece of fiction. While the same underlying infectious style is there, "The Bobby Gold Stories" is (refreshingly) written differently from "Bone" and "Bamboo," with a terse subtlety that I think is mistaken as simplicity by some other reviewers. It is true that the ending is oddly abrupt and leaves you wishing for more. Still, this reaction is probably rooted in the reality of being a Tony Bourdain fiction addict; and while this dose is not as potent as those past, it's still a great fix.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast paced, frantic tale.........
Review: Anthony Bourdain, an executive chef and talented author (read Kitchen Confidential and also Bone In The Throat!!) creates Bobby Gold, a tough guy for a Jewish mobster. Bobby is caught in the middle, between old friends from his past and his boss. Then as if things aren't complicated enough, he may be meeting the woman of his dreams.
One of the funniest scenes in the book is when his boss orders dinner at a well known restaurant, demanding that everything he orders be changed from the menu the chef has worked so hard to create. He picks and chooses and rearranges ingredients, sauces and anything else that he can creating hate and discontent among the kitchen and the waitstaff. This story is fast paced, sometimes almost too fast, but Bourdain, as always, delivers!!
Rating: 
Summary: Bourdain is Back to Basics!
Review: Bourdain returns to fiction after earning himself a place on the nonfiction bestseller lists with Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour. Back in the mid '90s he wrote two crime novels, the excellent Bone In the Throat, and the decidedly inferior Gone Bamboo. Here, he returns to the seedy world of mob-backed New York restaurant/nightclubs where Bobby Gold is the head of security at NiteKlub. Although the title says "Stories", the book is really a novella in twelve chapters. The first two introduce Bobby by showing him getting busted for carrying a few pounds of cocaine and heading to prison for ten years and then emerging and working as a decidedly reluctant armbreaker for his "connected" buddy. Bobby's story takes off in subsequent chapters on his work as head of security and potential romance with the restaurant's sauté chef, Nikki. Throughout the book, a realization builds within Bobby that he needs to create some distance between himself and Eddie, the low-level mobster he's connected to. The resolution of that plays out in a rather dark way, as the book takes a decidedly grim turn in the last two chapters.Like Bourdain's previous fiction, this is a fairly graphic tale (both in terms of violence, sex, and language), and one that displays Bourdain's ear for dialogue and slang. There are scenes throughout that simply jump off the page, most notably, a scene where Nikki makes a meal for Bobby as the kitchen is shutting down while the rest of the kitchen watches in disbelief. Another great scene is where Bobby goes to see a man about a carburetor, and ends up drinking with a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. And yet another takes place when Bobby has lunch at a swanky Manhattan joint with Eddie, who plays havoc with the menu. All in all, the story is so simple and there are so many vividly filmic scenes, that I'd be shocked if this isn't made into a movie. If you're unsure about whether or not this is your cup of tea, the second chapter ("Bobby At Work") can be read online in its entirety at The Barcelona Review. A quick web search should take you to it.
Rating:
Summary: This is far from Bourdain's best work
Review: For those of you looking for more in the vein of 'Kitchen Confidential' or 'Cook's Tour,' you may want to skip to the next item on your To-Read list. Anthony Bourdain switches to his fiction hat in his latest outing - a brisk paced read written in minimalist brushstrokes chronicling the adventures of Bobby Gold a tough-as-nails, recently released ex-con who is smitten w/the fetching saute cook at a niteclub/restaurant that he works the security detail on. For fans of hard-boiled crime fiction, this book may leave you feeling a bit unsatisified as the narrative is somewhat lacking in painting pictures of grimy crime worlds, and ingenious criminial schemes, et al. But what Bourdain clearly excels at and ultimately makes this slim-read somewhat worth your while are the moments detailing the inner workings of restaurants and the capturing of colorful banter between chefs, cooks, doing their jobs and talking smack amongst each other.
Rating: 
Summary: Something missing
Review: I could not wait to get another book from Tony. However, this one seems to be missing something. I liked "Bone In the Throat" and felt that "Gone Bamboo" was good as well. This one, however, seems overwhelmingly simple in comparison. It does have Tony's wit and the food references and the mafia connection but not as many twists and turns as the other two books. We also miss out on the colorful scene descriptions. It's just too simple. If you haven't read Bourdain's fiction yet, start with the other two and then finish off with this one. Tony, I hope the Les Halles cookbook will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Uninteresting novel now in "pamphlet size!"
Review: I recently picked up "The Bobby Gold Stories" at my local, Mesa, AZ, library. Needless to say, it was the greatest book that I have ever read, if you consider the Escorts section of the Qwest Dex Yellow Pages and the heart-breaking tale of Larry "Bud" Melman's career beginnings as a fan dancer "great." Bobby Gold is like a very tall, thin, face-busting, arm-breaking, Jewish Johnny Cash, except he can't play the guitar, or sing, or be memorable or have an impact on anything. You can read the plot synopsis for yourself to see what this book is about. I read the bulk of the book in a few hours. This book is about as long as "Goodnight, Moon," and the plot includes less twists. Memorable exchanges between Bobby and his hot, Asian-eyed romance pot of love, Nikki, include "You're a dangerous woman. You're going to get us both killed," and the ever-popular "Do you like the kind of music I like? 'Cuz if so, I'll climb on you!"-type comments like "I need to look at your record collection. I see any Billy f****** Joel in here and this ain't gonna happen." Nothing builds up a strong, sexy relationship like NOT enjoying the tunes of Billy Joel. I myself have spent many nights with my man, commenting on how much we hate "The Stranger" while sipping vodka and enjoying each other's company. Maybe if I was a big New Yorker, I would be saying things like this. Maybe if I beat people up and stole things for a living, or was otherwise "cool," I would understand this novel. Maybe if I got all hopped up on the goofenthal, I would adore it if I wrote like this. But I'm from Arizona, and even though it's to the left of middle America, I'm living across the street from a man with wooden signs tied to his bushes saying "Get U.S. Out of U.N." and "Waiting for the Rapture!" This story is not fleshed out enough and I was embarrassed that I had read it. Does Mr. Bourdain have some sort of connection with the publishing industry that the rest of us don't? If you can come out of many years of drug use and still produce poo like this that can get published and make money, I better get out my spoon. This book was hooey.
Rating:
Summary: Uninteresting novel now in "pamphlet size!"
Review: I recently picked up "The Bobby Gold Stories" at my local, Mesa, AZ, library. Needless to say, it was the greatest book that I have ever read, if you consider the Escorts section of the Qwest Dex Yellow Pages and the heart-breaking tale of Larry "Bud" Melman's career beginnings as a fan dancer "great." Bobby Gold is like a very tall, thin, face-busting, arm-breaking, Jewish Johnny Cash, except he can't play the guitar, or sing, or be memorable or have an impact on anything. You can read the plot synopsis for yourself to see what this book is about. I read the bulk of the book in a few hours. This book is about as long as "Goodnight, Moon," and the plot includes less twists. Memorable exchanges between Bobby and his hot, Asian-eyed romance pot of love, Nikki, include "You're a dangerous woman. You're going to get us both killed," and the ever-popular "Do you like the kind of music I like? 'Cuz if so, I'll climb on you!"-type comments like "I need to look at your record collection. I see any Billy f****** Joel in here and this ain't gonna happen." Nothing builds up a strong, sexy relationship like NOT enjoying the tunes of Billy Joel. I myself have spent many nights with my man, commenting on how much we hate "The Stranger" while sipping vodka and enjoying each other's company. Maybe if I was a big New Yorker, I would be saying things like this. Maybe if I beat people up and stole things for a living, or was otherwise "cool," I would understand this novel. Maybe if I got all hopped up on the goofenthal, I would adore it if I wrote like this. But I'm from Arizona, and even though it's to the left of middle America, I'm living across the street from a man with wooden signs tied to his bushes saying "Get U.S. Out of U.N." and "Waiting for the Rapture!" This story is not fleshed out enough and I was embarrassed that I had read it. Does Mr. Bourdain have some sort of connection with the publishing industry that the rest of us don't? If you can come out of many years of drug use and still produce poo like this that can get published and make money, I better get out my spoon. This book was hooey.
Rating:
Summary: Stripped to the Bone
Review: Reviewer: A reader from Northampton, MA USA
I've read & relished Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential & A Cook's Tour. No, I did not expect the same from this, as it's obviously a hardboiled fiction. And no, I didn't expect or want some kind of sequel to his nonfiction books, to get that out of the way.
I am also a fan of hardboiled crime fiction, of which James Ellroy is obviously the undisputed magus of our times. Frankly, I think it's shameful that Bourdain's editor didn't have the fortitude to send this thing back to him for more fleshing out. But that would take some serious attitude when Kitchen Confidential sold like a billion copies. It's a shame that the editor shirked his responsibilities on this one. Because what little there is of this book is good, inventive & compelling, in an elemental, hardboiled, Chandler or Jim Thompson way. Which is high praise. But this book reads more like the skeleton of a novel, a plot outline, a barebones treatment, even within the basic standards of this genre. You have to almost suspect it originated as a screenplay treatment. The hero, Bobby Gold, is a complete cipher, Ok, we get it, he's the strong silent type, but the character development is so threadbare that his only distinguishing characteristic is that he wears black all the time. The shards of something quite good are there, if you want to look. Maybe the Bobby Gold character can be built into a heavy dude with some backstory. There is one sinister establishing scene on Bobby Gold in here, but it's not nearly enough to flesh the thing out. A completely forced & arbitrary denoument only puts the skeletal remains of this novel in starker relief.
Rating:
Summary: Stripped to the Bone
Review: Reviewer: A reader from Northampton, MA USA
I've read & relished Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential & A Cook's Tour. No, I did not expect the same from this, as it's obviously a hardboiled fiction. And no, I didn't expect or want some kind of sequel to his nonfiction books, to get that out of the way.
I am also a fan of hardboiled crime fiction, of which James Ellroy is obviously the undisputed magus of our times. Frankly, I think it's shameful that Bourdain's editor didn't have the fortitude to send this thing back to him for more fleshing out. But that would take some serious attitude when Kitchen Confidential sold like a billion copies. It's a shame that the editor shirked his responsibilities on this one. Because what little there is of this book is good, inventive & compelling, in an elemental, hardboiled, Chandler or Jim Thompson way. Which is high praise. But this book reads more like the skeleton of a novel, a plot outline, a barebones treatment, even within the basic standards of this genre. You have to almost suspect it originated as a screenplay treatment. The hero, Bobby Gold, is a complete cipher, Ok, we get it, he's the strong silent type, but the character development is so threadbare that his only distinguishing characteristic is that he wears black all the time. The shards of something quite good are there, if you want to look. Maybe the Bobby Gold character can be built into a heavy dude with some backstory. There is one sinister establishing scene on Bobby Gold in here, but it's not nearly enough to flesh the thing out. A completely forced & arbitrary denoument only puts the skeletal remains of this novel in starker relief.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best work, but still enjoyable
Review: The Bobby Gold Stories follows in the mafia-esque footsteps of Bourdain's previous efforts at fiction, and comes up somewhat short. There's not a whole lot of character development here, and what serves as a plot is rather choppy and incoherent throughout most of the book. It was almost like Tony couldn't decide if he wanted to write a novel or a bunch of short stories. Sadly, references to the food service industry were sorely lacking in this one. I think he should keep that, as it really sets him apart and makes his work that much more unique. Regardless, it was still fun to read, and I look forward to more of his work.
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