THE GREAT GIMMELMANS

A novel focuses on a close-knit, dysfunctional clan of aspiring bank robbers.

In New Jersey, the stock market crash of 1987 signals a rude awakening for Barry Gimmelman. With his job, savings, and house gone, he piles his family into the only thing to escape repossession, the RV lovingly nicknamed Gas-Guzzler, and heads for Florida to stay with his mother-in-law. Narrated by Barry’s 12-year-old son, Aaron, Goldberg’s book is part road novel, part crime story, and part family saga. Aaron and Barry are like two tropical hurricanes feeding off each other’s destructive potential. When Aaron intuits the depth of his family’s financial need, he empties the cash register at a gas station, which gives Barry the idea to enlist the members of his family as accomplices in larger robberies. They include his devoted wife, Judith, and Aaron’s two sisters: boy-crazy Steph and mildly psychopathic Jenny. Driven by love, despair, the desire for adventure, or simply Barry’s charisma, the Gimmelmans soon transform from an average American family into Bonnie and Clyde with kids. Meanwhile, to escape his conscience, Aaron begins dipping into his father’s vial of cocaine stashed in the glove compartment. Goldberg’s writing sparkles with humor and wit, fitting moments of intimacy into otherwise dark scenes. For the family’s first heist, the parents use Judith’s bra, ripped in half, as masks. When Barry tries to sell his wife on a life of crime, he argues, “I’ll tell you why it will work. We are the most mild-mannered-looking squares on the planet. The kids, the RV, my hair, your fanny pack,” to which Judith responds: “You know a purse hurts my back.” As the family’s appetites spiral out of control, the robberies become more and more elaborate, with the jackpot rising exponentially. And even as the excitement brings the deliciously dysfunctional family together, Barry’s unchecked ambition soon develops ominous undertones in this engrossing story. What are the Gimmelmans willing to sacrifice in their quest for financial stability and what will it take to stop them?

An engaging dark comedy about the dangers of family ties.