The Sidewalk Smokers Club

By Stephen Siciliano

Stephen Siciliano's Sidewalk Smokers are a m lange of semi-employed rakes and rakettes occupying the ranks of a maligned subculture. Driven outdoors by the most selective kind of lawmaking, they find their resistance to the increased regulation of American life symptomatic of a deeper sense of threatened homogenization.

What's different about The Sidewalk Smokers Club's battle for individual sanctity is how it is carried on within the confines of a collective effort. Lethargic sensualists, craven in their drive for publicity, the group's saving grace is that they are uncommonly kind to one another. Do we really know people like this? Probably not, which may, in the end, be what Mr. Siciliano is after.

At best unconsecrated makers of useless things, at worst a cabal of rootless cosmopolitans on the make for the big break, The Smokers are united behind one of their own, taking on a media giant over the publishing of some dated, nude photos. Aware that outlandish behavior garners notoriety they climb into the public eye, opening their tendencies to the approbation or vilification by a society of "watchers". They get both.

A journalist of 20-plus years, Mr. Siciliano impishly details the consensus corruption that greases America's political machine, A prolific screenwriter, his conversations crackle with the Noel Coward-like insight, sophistication and humor one might expect from a group of neo-bohemians sitting around breathing each other's insalubrious emissions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595395813
• ISBN13: 9780595395811
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

There is more to life than cigarettes

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (2/08) An eclectic, eccentric group of mostly underachievers finds themselves bonding with each other while they are banished, by smoking laws, to smoking outside on the sidewalk. There are times in the story where it seems like the right to smoke is more important to this group than their actual desire to smoke. They first begin to congregate outside of one restaurant in particular. The group savors the times when restaurants actually allow them to smoke inside. On their own, they haven't accomplished much. There is an attractive lesbian, who still seems like she hasn't fully decided. One couple is struggling to keep up with living the American dream. A beautiful woman who modeled nude and pretends to regret it, finds herself the object of many fantasies, by both men and women. One man keeps himself underemployed. Another, who seems to be totally unemployed, calls himself a "Bum Philosopher." This was a new term to me. He describes bum philosophy as: "The things that are known by all, but must be said simply because the mundane truths beg repeating to each new generation." He and some of the others unite to create more bum philosophies. These ideas were very entertaining. As the group bonds over the right to smoke issue, they also take on other issues that individuals in the group are facing. They seem to mainly do this to empower themselves. As a united front, they are getting attention. Some relationships unite, and some divide in this story. As the Sidewalk Smokers Club fight for their causes, they also find their strengths. Stephen Siciliano has written an incredibly entertaining story. He brings each character to life and whether you like them or not, you take notice and usually laugh. Making the characters seem so real, you feel more like a fly on the wall watching the scenes play themselves out, rather than just being a reader. The imperfections of the characters are what make them seem so real. Most of their actions are based on selfish, self-serving purposes. They might think that they are acting for the group, but in many cases, the expected result is for themselves. "The Sidewalk Smoker's Club" is an intelligently written gem of a novel, even to an unsympathetic non-smoker like my self.