Grosse Pointe Pimp

By Mark Steel

Book Overview

Fictional book about gossip regarding the prominent people that live in a suburb of Detroit, called Grosse Pointe. Grosse Pointe Pimp was written by a personal trainer to the rich and famous of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974580600
• ISBN13: 9780974580609
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Riveting Publishing
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 1.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Gossip in Grosse Pointe

What has been whispered about from the great halls of homes on Provencal Road to the docks of the Little Club has now been made into a novel. The local content makes it interesting but it is not very well written. For a quick summer read it is entertaining. The sequal Grosse Pointe Inferno is much more polished but lacks some of the interesting local content until the final chapters. Inferno also has the same unfinished ending as another reviewer mentioned. Appparetnly Mr. Steel intends to turn this saga into a book series.

Grosse Pointe Confidential

The setting is fabulous. The story is based primarily in one of America's ritziest communities - the fabled Grosse Pointe. (To readers not familiar with Detroit - there are actually five municipalities which make up the ultra tony area known as "Grosse Pointe". According to high society author Stephen Birmingham, they rank in prestige as follows; GP Farms, GP Shores, GP City, GP Park and GP Woods.) The main character lives in the Shores and his mistress lives in the Park. This area has been used as the backdrop for several fairly recent books such as Middlesex, the movie Grosse Pointe Blank and the TV show Grosse Pointe. I have spent many fine summer days in Grosse Pointe and it is an enchanting area with miles of stately manses, fine private clubs and colorful characters. Think of it as a more staid Northern version of Palm Beach. The author does a decent job of describing the grand mansions, yachts, sparkling large lake, mature trees and emerald green lawns which serve as a backdrop for this "story". The "story" is fair. Mark Steel is clearly a new author who likes to write about his muscles and the vices of his former employer. What the author lacks in the ability to spin a good tale is made up for by the real life inside peek at how some of the upper crust live. The book is best described as a tabloid story turned into a slightly concealed work of fiction. To residents of Detroit or even south Florida most of the charachters can be quickly recognized -the owner of a low end chain of furniture stores with never ending clearance sales, the owner of an international bridge, the Trailer Park King, the brand names, the former pizza king, the mafia boss etc... I understand that locally this book became such a hot topic that even Detroits major newspapers wrote articles about the book and the gossip explosion it created. The main charachter, Max Lexington (not his real name but his nationwide chain of stores carries an abbreviatted version of his actual name. The real life individaul is a multi-multi-millionaire but he is not the wealthiest man in the state much less on his own street which is home to a few billionaires) is based on a very well known and respected figure in Michigan. The type of individual that most would last expect to be involved in such a sordid scandal. The only name which the author does not conceal with a fictional name is his own and that of his business - a local gym in the Shores. If you look at this book as reading a long but fascinating tabloid article rather then the next Middlesex you will not be disappointed. Be warned, the book has an unsatisfying abrupt "soap opera" style ending. According to the author's web site the continuation of this saga of wealth and scandal, "Grosse Pointe Inferno" is due out in late July. Let me guess - does someone get pregnant???