Boyos presents a compelling slice of Southie life from 
the lowest levels of the blue collar citizens who place bets and use the loan sharks to make it to the next payday to the highest levels of the Italian Mafia in the North East. In between we get realistic portraits of all the shylocks, tough guys, enforcers, robbers, drug dealers, users and fences that inhabit the world of South Boston. It is in these portraits, the way that these characters talk and interact, that Marinicks experience comes into play. While reading Boyos you become so immersed in their world that it feels like you’re reading a non-fiction account of that life. Which shouldn’t suggest a dry recitation with slightly altered facts; Southie lives and breathes in these passages. This is a book unlike any other that is amazing in its scope and presentation.
At the center of the story is Jack “Whacko” Curran and to lesser extent his younger brother Kevin. They are both successful earners in the Irish Mob and their careers are on the rise. They are tired of paying tribute to their boss but little do they know that he has plans of his own for them also. It becomes inevitable that these two paths will cross.
Boyos starts out as an ever widening spiral with Whacko at its center. As the spiral continues around him and getting further away we continue to get introduced to more and more characters. Then the story becomes a kind of parabola with the large cast coming and going as Whacko comes into contact and interacts with them.
I originally reviewed Boyos by Richard Marinick on August 7th, 2006
Brian is the non-fiction editor of Spinetingler magazine and one of the fiction editors of Snubnose Press. In addition to Spinetingler his work has appeared in Crimespree magazine and at BSC Review, Galleycat and the Mulholland Books website. He also heads the Spinetingler Award committee.
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