Table Money.

RIP Jimmy Breslin.

He was a writer's writer.

I wouldn't waste my time with The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, but Table Money is not to be missed. Excellent character development. Men and women.

In Vietnam, Owney Morrison was a hero, winner of the Medal of Honor. Back home in Queens, married and father of a baby daughter, Owney is following family tradition and working as a tunnel builder. He is also following the family tradition of heavy drinking, and he is losing the battle of the bottle. Desperate, his wife Dolores leaves him, determined to make her life more meaningful than the lot usually decreed for Queens housewives. This is more than simply another novel of marital problems. By focusing on the Morrisons and their extended families, their friends and neighbors, Breslin dramatizes the changing relationships of men and women, parents and children, in contemporary America. This is a serious book that is frequently very funny, filled with Breslin's trademark hilarious dialogue and his usual supporting cast of zany eccentrics. Easily Breslin's best novel. Literary Guild dual main selection. Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.