Casino Moon (31 page)

One of the “mole people” whom Blauner encountered in 1994 while researching a book in the tunnels beneath Riverside Park in Manhattan. He describes the tunnels as “one of the darkest places I’ve ever been, save for the occasional flicker of a lighter going to a crack pipe.” Blauner and a friend were taking pictures when the man in this photo displayed his displeasure by throwing a brick at them, though, Blauner remembers, “he missed, perhaps because of his falling trousers.”

Blauner at a reading at Barnes & Noble in 1996 to support his book
The Intruder
.

In 1997, Blauner traveled to the West Bank to research a character—a disaffected Palestinian who gets drawn into terrorism—for his book
Man of the Hour
. He’s seen here at the shepherd’s market near Bethlehem. “One of the shepherds took the picture, hence the haphazard technique.”

Blauner’s Red Cross, Department of Probation, and Volunteers of America ID cards. The Red Cross ID was issued to Blauner when he volunteered at Ground Zero in the wake of the September 11th attacks. He wrote of the event indirectly in his book
The Last Good Day
, saying that writing about the tragedy directly would have been “like staring straight into the sun. It seemed like a more graceful idea to write about the shadows on the ground.” Blauner had previously volunteered at New York’s Department of Probation as research for his novel
Slow Motion Riot
and at a homeless shelter at the former Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital where he researched
The Intruder
.

Blauner’s two sons, Mose and Mac.

Blauner in his house in Brooklyn, where he moved with his family in 2003. Previously, they had lived in an apartment just down the hill that, Blauner recalls, was so narrow visitors said they felt like they were visiting Colonial Williamsburg.

Blauner and Peg in Florida circa 2004.

Blauner and family in Egypt, where for several years the author has been conducting research for a new novel (2008).

Acknowledgments

THIS IS A WORK
of fiction about Atlantic City. Though some institutions depicted in the book are real, the characters and events are not.

I would like to thank the following people for their help: Bill Tonelli, Suzan Karpati, Robert Flipping, Lou Toscano, Glenn Lillie, Shannon Bybee and the rest of the staff of the Claridge Casino-Hotel, Mary Jean Arriola, Tim Voigt, Gay Talese, Vin Czyz, Steven Smoger, Larry Holmes, Thomas Hauser, Ferdie Pacheco, Joe Sayegh, Alia Sayegh, Gail Marrandino, Doug LeVien, Iggy Pop, Robert Lacey, Paul Solotaroff, Pat Pileggi, Dave Lewis, Otto Penzler, Kate Stine, Wayne Kral, Michael Siegel, Dominick Anfuso, Carl Sifakis, Roger Gros, Bobby Fox, Chris Smith, Pat Dodd, Bobby Czyz, Steven Griffin, Casandra M. Jones, James B. Harris, Joanne Gruber, Dan Tyre, Gleason’s Gym, Mark Pfeffer, Fran and Barry Weissler, Fran Kessler, and, of course, Peg.

As always, Arthur Pine and Lori Andiman have been in my corner. And I would like to give special thanks to Richard Pine and Clare Alexander, two champs who were willing to go the distance.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

“You’ve Changed” by Bill Carey and Carl Fischer. Copyright © 1943 by Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc. Copyright Renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of peermusic New York and London.

copyright © 1994 by Peter Blauner

cover design by Karen Horton

ISBN: 978-1-4532-1525-8

This edition published in 2011 by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com