Bless Me, Father

by Mark Kriegel

A hard-hitting, moving novel focuses on a sixteen-year-old boy who wants to become a man and his father, who firmly believes that manhood is won in the ring--or in the mob. Reprint. PW. K. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425155749
• ISBN13: 9780425155745
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 337 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.1" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

Best book I ever read

Kriegel has a great sense of New York and brings his characters to life. As you read this book, you'll feel like you've known the character your whole life. Having met Mark Kriegel and discussing the book with him, he is an author that is down to earth and extremely modest. Great Read. Can't wait for more from Kriegel.

does the trade proud

Kriegel's Bless Me, Father is often lyrical and always important. Superbly written, exceptionally descriptive and perfectly plotted, there's more twists and turns than an old wooden rollercoaster. Loved it!

A must-read to all

Mark Kriegel has captured the true father-son struggle in his novel, "Bless Me, Father". Frank Battaglia wants only one thing from his son Nicky - to be the fighter that he never was. Now Nicky is faced with life's tough decisions of growing up as a mobster's son. Powerful, unputdownable. A must read!

A hard-edged coming of age

Mark Kriegel's novel Bless Me Father is a hard-edged chronicle of growing up in the mob, and around the boxing ring, in Little Italy, Manhattan. Besides being a compulsive page-turner, Kriegel has also given us a fine work of literature. Nicky Battaglia, the teenaged protagonist, is the son of a failed-boxer father and up-and-coming mob lieutenant. Frank Battaglia, the father, hides behind his youthful failure as a boxer by giving the appearance of the prototype mafia "tough guy"; problems arise when Frank needs to demonstrate his toughness by both knocking off his boss ("The Fatman") and turning Nicky into a boxer. In the hands of a different or less gifted writer, the plot and setting here have cliche and "pot-boiler" written all over them. Kriegel transcends the easy cliches and plot twists which one might expect and gives a modern morality tale of father, son, and the true meanings and uses of courage. Every one of his characters is perfect, from the mob family to the hangers-on down at the boxing gym. One can almost smell the sweat around the boxing ring! As a male, but not particularly athletic or "macho" reader, but a sports fan, I found this a great book. I would be interested in the perspective of other, particularly female, readers.