";s:4:"text";s:3351:" Prolific American author of the mid-twentieth century. A beautiful but amoral gypsy girl entices a young dragoon to betray his honor and get cashiered from the service, and for her sake he soon turns to a life of crime. Probably the best thing about this film is the numbers The Chairman does alone onstage.
Meanwhile, we can tell from his letters that his friend is on the fast track, becoming far more successful than Joey is or likely ever will be, not necessarily because of raw talent but probably more due to his personality, and perhaps just luck.
It includes two songs that have become standards: "I Could Write a Book" and "B… Born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, he later used the town, under the fictitious name of Gibbsville, as the setting for many of his novels and short stories. The main character is a singer, sort of a Bing Crosby-Frank Sinatra wannabe in the 40s. 40 of 45 people found this review helpful. This book is mostly about style - the half literate, newsy, self-absorbed, mooching, mostly joking style of Joey, who writes a series of letters to his much more successful friend Ned.
"There were three kinds of women to Joey, the ones he could make, the ones he couldn't, and the ones with dough.
"Pal Joey" left an indelibe mark on me and I couldn't help but think it was the kind of book Bukowski would've been proud to write it was so American to the core, and so cool at the same time, about a jazz musician.
So one clearly gets the flavor of an era, and the showbiz world of nightclubs and struggling musicians. This book took me forever to finish, but only because it's easy to pick up again after you've put it aside.