The Bronx Stagger
Sex, Drugs, and the Rock 'n Roll of dysfunction are on the docket of Bronx Family Court, the busiest family court in NYC. Schwartz the Lawyer fights for justice for families in that court while struggling with personal demons that place his own family at risk. In the cross-hairs of this tragi-comedic novel are the minions of the Children's Best Interest Industrial Complex: the judges, lawyers, caseworkers, social workers, therapists, and litigants who populate Bronx Family Court. Bronx Stagger rises from the ashes of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities to dramatize the inner life of the denizens of The Bronx behind the sealed doors of the courtrooms.
With his libido in overdrive, Schwartz is looking for love in all the wrong courtrooms. Immersed in the dysfunctional dance of sex and violence that permeates the Family Court milieu, Schwartz is conflicted by his flagging idealism, nagging conscience and the dulling of his skills against the miasma of mediocrity and C.Y.A. culture that infuses the Family Court/Foster Care System. Accused of sex abuse and domestic violence, Schwartz travels the continuum from apathetic lawyer to outraged litigant as his family is drawn into the Court's vortex of passion.
A diverse ensemble of colleagues, clients, and cohorts inhabit the landscape of this novel, each with their own story to tell. The humor ranges from dark to echoes of vaudeville. The tragedy is, well, pretty tragic. The soundtrack of Schwartz's tale is provided courtesy of his infatuation with a star-crossed scion of the Bronx, the Late, Great Bobby Darin. The temporal frame of the novel is the final months of the Twentieth Century, with the horrors of the next century stored like floats in a parade, waiting to be inflated and unfurled.
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