One minute he's in Central Park
Then he's down on Lexington Steet
From The Bowery to St Marks...

This novel is a wild ride. The MC, Vinnie, played a lesser role in the authors previous novel, Everybody But Us.
Vinnie is the man-cub you can't help but love, although you also shake your head at his antics. One part Robin Hood, one part Huck Finn, and a dash of Todd Wilkinson (My Blue Heaven), Vinnie is a stand up guy who believes the ends justify the means...until he doesn't.
The characters are rich, nuanced, and for the most part complex. This is a sad story wrapped in humor and a style all its own. ( )

In a world where hustle is the name of the game, teenaged Vinny Il-Cazzo is the greatest player ever. He speaks a language of his own (I learned a bunch of phrases like “dig the scene but gradually” for taking a moment to get one’s bearings, and “claws sharp” for being intelligent) There are two huge problems in Vinnie’s life. One, his parents are con artists who taught him how to be a criminal. From shoplifting and credit card fraud, to scamming restaurants out of free food, he becomes an expert. Two, he is in love with a girl named Steph who is being abused by her father and has to “go underground” with her mom and sister to escape.
The majority of the story is Vinnie’s search for Steph. As he travels, he finds ways to camp on the beach, obtain free food, get hotel rooms for cheap, and help other people who need his skills in order to survive.

My one critique is that while searching for Steph with whom he is infatuated, he is all up in it with every girl he meets. It made me feel like he wasn’t very loyal to Steph. I admit that the author handles this problem well, but it is sad anyway.

Eventually Vinnie’s own morals lead to lifestyle changes for the better. The ending was satisfying and felt true.

I couldn’t put this book down. I loved it that much. In certain places it’s almost a survival guide for our present day. ( )

I must admit that part of this book’s appeal was, for me, because it described a lifestyle that is so alien to my own. I felt compelled to keep reading to see what would happen next. Vinnie’s family—and later Vinnie himself—made the cons look easy, though that success came with strings. Some of the costs came much later, when Vinnie began to question the life he’d led. But with the strength I’d come to expect from this character, he sorts it out and keeps moving forward.

The entire book is told from Vinnie’s point of view. His story captured me from the very first page and kept me hooked throughout. His fearless determination to survive, no matter what it took, made me like and root for him despite his crimes. The character that shows up on the last page is a highly evolved and stronger version of the boy we see on page one. Knowing how far he had to come to reach that point, I felt proud of him.

One thing to note is that the story is told in Vinnie’s (and his family’s) peculiar patois with terms like “chick” instead of girl, “cat” instead of man, “dig” instead of understand, etc. At first, it was a little hard to follow, but after a few chapters, it no longer distracted me. There were, however, a few places where I had to depend on context for Vinnie’s meaning. It wasn’t enough of a drawback to stop me reading this captivating tale.

Even though this was occasionally hard to read because of Vinnie’s harsh circumstances, I found myself wondering whether people I see in my own city are facing similar hardships. More than once I asked myself what I would do to survive, if I had to. It’s an uncomfortable thing to consider.

The Long Game provokes thought for one’s own life, and compassion for those of others. Recommended. ( )

THE LONG GAME is a coming of age story that follows Vinnie, a boy who grows up in a household of swindlers and cheats, and learns from a young age how to steal, commit fraud, and be a leech on everyone around him from his parents. It was really hard to read in places because the author does such an outstanding job of showing how the parents teach Vinnie to steal in one circumstance after another, in the grocery store, in restaurants, credit card fraud, until he knows nothing else. His relationship with Steph, a girl he helps escape from a terrible life, and who he honestly adores, was a bright spot in the story. Vinnie grew on me at the end when he goes to stay on a farm and reevaluates his choices. This is a story that really makes you think, with vivid descriptions. 5/5 stars. ( )