Where I Went Wrong
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Tony Mazza is no stranger to bad days; in fact, they often seem to define his life, including stints at a real estate agency, a bike shop, and a bar. After his latest job, as a hospital orderly, he faces jail time for driving off in a stolen ambulance. " Where did I go wrong?" he wonders as he thinks back on his failed relationships, a disastrous investment, and family challenges dating back to high school and earlier...all the way back to his birth, as recounted by his much-put-upon mother. Where I Went Wrong is Tony' s story, a novel that blends action with rueful reflection, examining the complexities of failure and success. It poses the question of why some people lose out while others get away with little short of murder, offering a narrative both comic and profoundly serious.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Galef (My Date with Neanderthal Woman) delivers an uneven comic novel about a disgraced hospital orderly trying to understand his downfall. It's the year 2000 and narrator Tony Mazza, 41, is joyriding in a stolen ambulance. After accidentally smashing into a Porsche, he's arrested by a cop who calls an ambulance ("Um, another ambulance," the cop clarifies), which transports Tony back to his own ER. Tony then takes readers on a reverse tour through his life, searching for answers to a question that has long plagued him: "Where did I go wrong?" He begins with his last job as a bartender and goes all the way back to his teenage and preteen years. At no point can Tony manage to make good, with misfortune or poor judgment repeatedly wrecking his chances for happiness and stability while his ne'er-do-well friend Sandy Quade always gets off scot-free. It's Sandy who surfaces as a voice in Tony's head telling him to do reckless things like steal the ambulance. Tony's soul-searching persistently touches on a subplot involving the disappearance of his younger sister, Angela, when they were kids, and hints that the Quade family might have been responsible. Galef's prose is tight and his sense of humor is sharper than that of Tony, who has a penchant for stupid jokes, but a late-breaking revelation feels emotionally manipulative. It's a mixed bag.
