FIXER

Superb 5-Star Story - Well Told

Fixer reviewed by C. L. Rossman, Armchair Interviews

Out of the ranks of the poor and downtrodden immigrants in the early 1900s, there rose a champion for the masses: Harry Leonnoff. As a mistreated kid himself, who never knew kindness except from one foster farm family, Harry contracted polio at an early age, and willed himself to walk again, although with a limp.

In this "fictional biography," the author places Harry at the scene of some famous injustices - such as the case of the "Scottsboro Boys," and makes him a lightning-rod of justice, protecting people against discrimination and even wrongful death. Jewish himself, Harry never could understand the instant hatred he received from people who didn't even know him. Uneducated yet trained to read the law, he aligned himself with one facet of Tammany Hall and became a U. S. Marshal, yet always worked for the benefit of the little guy.

If you knew of something happening that was wrong, you called on Harry Leonnoff to "fix it."

The novel gives a vivid look at turn-of-the-century New York City politics, including the career of Fiorello La Guardia, who becomes Harry's nemesis. The author, a motivational speaker who previously wrote nonfiction like Negotiation Boot Camp and Beating the Success Trap, wrote this book in honor of his real-life grandfather Harry Wolkof and modeled his main character after him. So this is a fictionalized biography of sorts, but one which the author hopes remains true to his grandfather's character-who was "the most extraordinary human being I have ever met," he writes.

Armchair Interviews says: This makes for an equally extraordinary book, and one you won't be able to put down.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Brodow. All rights reserved.