Effortlessly straddling any number of genres CITIZEN VINCE is a book that is easier to read than describe. If pressed to assign it a genre I'd have to put in the "philosophical-political-comedy-crime-thriller" section. Or maybe the "mystery-morality-tale-slash-black-comedy" section...I'm not sure.
CITIZEN VINCE centers on the life of a former small-time gangster in the witness protection program in the early eighties. To say that the plot is about Vince's past catching up with him is to do the story a gross misservice. While the unraveling of one of his small-time rackets is the starting point of the plot, there is much more, both thematically and structurally, going on. The story really focuses on Vince's seduction by "normal" life, and his realization of the price he is willing to pay to be a decent person. Interwoven around Vince's internal discovery is an engaging yarn of the criminal underworld, good (and bad) cops, love and betrayal.
The writing is crisp and direct. For a story with so many different levels, it never bogs itself down in internal monologues and naval-gazing prose. The writer deftly moves the focus of your attention from character to character, point to point, and always leaves you eager to turn the page. If the book has any weakness it is that it's too short: I wanted to hang around in Vince's head for just a little while longer and see if he had the strength to follow through on his newfound convictions.
It's the fall of 1980, eight days before a presidential
election that pits the downtrodden Jimmy Carter against the
suspiciously sunny Ronald Reagan ("Are you better off than
you were four years ago?"). In a quiet house in Spokane,
Washington, Vince Camden wakes up at 1:59 a.m., pockets his
weekly stash of stolen credit cards, and drops in on an
all-night poker game with his low-life friends on his way to
his witness-protection job dusting crullers at Donut Make
You Hungry. This is the sum of Vince's new life: donuts,
forged credit cards, marijuana smuggled in jars of volcanic
ash, and a neurotic hooker girlfriend who dreams of being a
real estate agent.
But when a familiar face shows up in town, Vince realizes
that no matter how far you think you've run from your past .
. . it's always close behind you. Over the course of the
next unforgettable week, on the run from Spokane to New
York's Lower East Side, Vince Camden will negotiate a maze
of obsessive cops, eager politicians, and emerging mobsters,
only to find that redemption might just exist in -- of all
places -- a voting booth.
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