In the Hand of Dante - ISBNLookup.com

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In the cavernous layers of the Vatican Library, a priest opens a long-neglected book. He discovers to his astonishment that he is holding the manuscript of Dante's Commedia. This priceless find moves from the Holy City to the vaults of New York City, where a mob boss, less confident of classics than roadkill, summons a writer named Nick Tosches to authenticate his newly snared treasure. The writer, stricken with a reader's greed, steals the original Divine Comedy and begins his own Dante-like descent into this subterranean city. This novel, which Tosches (the novelist, not the character) considers his masterwork, reverberates with its gritty mythos.

San Diego Union Tribune

...razor sharp insights...this novel's true wisdom lies in its poetry...

Entertainment Weekly

...the most audacious thing about this is the author's furious delivery of rare aesthetic bliss...A.

San Francisco Chronicle

...a great, glorious mess of a novel that happily breaks every rule it can...

James Sullivan

Tosches is one of the more intoxicating, infuriating writers around. A specialist in the seamy side of popular music—he has written thrilling biographies of Jerry Lee Lewis (Hellfire) and Dean Martin (Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams)—the author is also a lyrical chronicler of Mafia culture and a formidable scholar of the classics. In this novel he combines those wildly divergent interests with a bit of apparent memoir about his battles with diabetes, alcohol and writing. The improbable result involves a quest to authenticate stolen pages of Dante's original manuscript, an extended rant about the state of contemporary publishing and (as always with Tosches) some gleeful brutality. The writing, when it's not impenetrable, is often gorgeous.

Publishers Weekly

Deftly blending the sacred and the profane, Tosches boldly casts himself as the protagonist in his latest novel, an outrageously ambitious book in which he procures a purloined version of the original manuscript of The Divine Comedy while tracing Dante's journey as Dante struggled to complete his penultimate work. The initial chapters find Tosches looking back and questioning the results of his fascinating life and career, with a brief but devastating aside about the decline of publishing. But Tosches suddenly emerges from his morbid nostalgia when a former character named Louie (a gangster from Tosches's Cut Numbers) gets his hands on a stolen copy of Dante's manuscript and asks Tosches to authenticate it. That sends the author on a whirlwind tour to Arizona, Chicago, Paris and then London as he tries to verify the work and then determine its worth on the open market. The subplot involving Dante's journey is flat and stale by comparison, despite some impeccable scholarship by Tosches as he chronicles the great poet's efforts and setbacks. Tosches's sense of the shock value of his story line doesn't waver, and there's never a dull moment as he opines about modern culture, the Mob, the Oprah Book Club, Zen editing and the joy of being edited, September 11, the artistic process and anything else that happens to hop into his head for a few pages. The ending is a bit of a letdown, but fans of the one-man literary show that is Nick Tosches will doubtless love this book. Overall, it remains incomplete as a novel because of Tosches's inability to bring Dante to life as a character, although the author's admiration for him as a creative force results in a number of compelling passages. (Sept. 4) Forecast: This attention-grabbing novel should create its own buzz, but Little, Brown is gilding the lily with a 75,000 first printing, national ad campaign, Web marketing and a five-city author tour. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Dante's original manuscript for The Divine Comedy is the catalyst for Tosches's schizophrenic yet at times brilliant novel, synthesizing history and biography with contemporary murder and mayhem to create an exotic meal of a book, albeit one for strong stomachs. The book alternates between two different worlds: 14th-century Italy, where Dante Alighieri searches for the perfect inspiration to complete his masterwork, and 21st-century New York, where murderous thugs seek to profit from the recently unearthed manuscript, thought to be lost to the ages. Enter Tosches, a student of Dante's work and a go-between for the mob; his quest to authenticate the book takes a turn that his conspirators can't predict, and he has plans of his own for the tome. What makes the novel special is Tosches himself, who examines his own life, weary philosophy, and creative inspiration in his usual in-your-face style. In one fascinating aside, the author rants about monopolistic publishing houses, effectively biting the hand that feeds him. As with any Tosches book, a reader's willingness to embrace the dark side and all that it entails is essential. However, behind the grunge lies a fascinating study of the power of writing and the relative value applied to it. The fact that the cynical Tosches doesn't provide easy answers only adds more provocation. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/02.]-Marc Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.