BIG CITY D.A.

by Mario with Mary Ann Giordano Merola ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 31, 1988

What turns out to be Bronx District Attorney Mario Merola's last testament--he died suddenly in October 1987--is unfortunately a very standard, very boring political bio, despite the macho-sounding title. Merola grew up in the Bronx, the son of a barber, flew bombing missions over Europe for the Air Force, played a little semi-pro football, and rather belatedly arrived--in 1960 at the age of 38--as an assistant attorney in the Bronx. Hardworking, honest, and with good Democrat party clubhouse connections, he became D.A. in 1972 and held on to the post for 15 years. Here, in tried and true fashion, he highlights his most famous cases: Son of Sam; the trial and conviction of horse-trainer Buddy Jacobson for murdering his girlfriend's lover; the controversial death of black grandmother Eleanor Bumpers, shot by a white policeman during an eviction; etc. But Merola has no new angles to add--and he and coauthor Mary Ann Giodorno dull the retelling of even fascinating cases with a sonorous, ponderously evenhanded style. It gets worse when Merola pauses to muse: ""Little did I think then that at the age of sixty-five I'd still be fighting crime in Bronx County."" Or: ""What it all boils clown to is. . .we stop thinking about the short term and concentrate on long-range solutions."" And his comments about the Bronx County Courthouse itself--""it's kind of seedy, and the neighborhood around it has seen better days""--will disappoint anyone who has read Tom Wolfe's devastating portrait of a crumbling building under seige in an urban nightmare of a neighborhood in The Bonfire of the Vanities. Merola was a good D.A. This simply isn't a good book.

Pub Date: Aug. 31, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION