I don’t think much of your suit, he said at last. The barman fingered the lapels on Bugsy’s crumpled jacket. One of the things that make Bugsy such an appealing character is that he is aware of his shortcomings but he doesn’t let them hold him back. He’s got style but it doesn’t have to do with what he is wearing – his suit isn’t great – money is certainly on the tight side but he gets by. He’s a nice-looking fellow but he’s not vain.
He is just the right side of honest, but every now and then push comes to shove and he has to step over the line. He has edge but we know he’s a decent guy. We don’t get to meet Bugsy until chapter four, it’s a nice way of building him up we know we’re going to meet him because his name is, after all, the book’s title – somehow not meeting him right away makes him all the more charismatic.īugsy Malone is that perfect hero, antihero. She might be the romantic interest but she’s no sap, that’s for sure.īlousey: So how you gonna give me a lift, buster? Stand me on a box? As a child I was always rather fond of Blousey Brown. That’s the thing about this book, the female characters are given good roles too, they aren’t just there to wander in and out of scenes without too much personality. She is sassy and bewitching and snaps out great one-liners: I’ll go manicure my gloves. I meet quite a few Tallulahs these days – goldfish and children – which isn’t surprising because, as characters go, Tallulah isn’t a bad one to be named after. The names are pretty descriptive too Pop, Fizzy, Jelly, Bangles, Tallulah. She was built like a Mack truck and her shoulders would have done credit to an all-in wrestler.
The characters – and there are a great many of them – are all described in such a way that in just a few lines you feel you could almost draw them: she had the kind of face that needed a personality behind it. Of course Bugsy Malone is a great film, but it’s also a great book. Those of us who are still alive still talk about it. My whole family went, including my cousins, my aunt, uncle, great-aunt, great-uncle and grandmother. We were in Norfolk for my cousin’s wedding, the weather was dismal and we had a free afternoon with nothing to do so we all went to the cinema. I saw the film of Bugsy Malone when I was about ten. But above all, what this one line tells you is that this is going to be a funny book. It also has a sort of ‘back in the olden days’ feel to it, and the name Roxy Robinson somehow suggests gangsters and old-time New York. You know right away that there’s going to be some snappy dialogue and some hardboiled characters. Someone once said that if it was raining brains, Roxy Robinson wouldn’t even get wet. The opening sentence to Bugsy Malone is one of my all-time favourites. Someone once said that if you can open with a really good first line then you are halfway to writing a really great book.
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