Here is proof that when there's a film deal in the works, publishers will snap up the book and promote it as a literary event. Carcaterra, who landed on the big screen with his New York Times
bestseller Sleepers, builds his flimsy tale around a Neapolitan legend describing a 1943 skirmish between armored German occupation forces and local street urchins. In doing so, he draws inspiration from a host of sources ranging from The Secret of Santa Vittoria
to Saving Private Ryan. Steve Connors, an American commando cut off from his unit, joins forces with a group of Neapolitan slum children orphaned by the war. The one-dimensional characters and their names could have been taken from a war comic: there is the dutiful Nazi named Von Klaus, who knows that Germany will lose the war, but is determined to follow his orders no matter what; Nunzia, the love interest; even a faithful mastiff who stays by Connors's side throughout. The amateurish writing—especially the dialogue ("The Nazis have destroyed Naples, but they have not destroyed us")—seems formatted for quick and easy screen adaptation, weaving cookie-cutter moments together in picturesquely ravaged locales. The reader can almost hear the director shouting, "Cue Panzers!" Cliché-addled, unconvincing and loaded with ridiculous throwaway lines, this novel will need all the help it can get from the film version. (Sept.)
Forecast:The book's shortcomings will be more than made up for in marketing: for starters, a six-city author tour, national advertising in major newspapers, national radio advertising and a teaser chapter in the paperback of
Gangster. Best of all, perhaps: Barry Levinson is to direct the Warner Bros. film version.
