Hustlers, Heroes & Hooligans
by Dan Lynch
Publisher: Whitson Publishing, Albany, NY, 2003

book reviewed by Marci Blake.

"Hustlers, Heroes & Hooligans" is a collection of essays written by Dan Lynch during his years as a featured columnist at The Times Union in Albany, NY. It is a collection about the unique way of life in New York, and features characters both little and well known to readers.

The essays Lynch choose for this book cover some of the colorful people who have made New York the state it is today. Some are unknowns struggling with the seemingly endless bureaucracy and insanity of New York government. Others are well known, but Lynch has a way of bringing out information about these people that the average reader may not know about.

Lynch's professional life prepared him well for the observations he shares in this book. He's been a newspaper editor and columnist, a talk-show host and even a candidate for public office. He also has spent most of his life in New York and reveals his love for this state in his work.

"Hustlers, Heroes and Hooligans" is divided into articles on common themes, including "Everyday Heroes," "Law & Order" and "The uniquely Albany State of Mind." Almost all of the sections feature everyday people dealing with extraordinary situations.

In the section entitled "Everyday Heroes," he celebrates people like Roger Machodo, who served as a marine during WWII -- a kid willing to save the world, and Rod Kermani, an Iranian immigrant and retired rug merchant, who was honored as the YMCA's citizen of the year for his charity and community work.

Lynch highlights a mix of people in "Politicians, Perverse Priorities & Puzzled People," including Benedict Arnold and Hillary Clinton. Arnold is best known as a traitor, but Lynch reminds his readers about the time when Arnold led a group of soldiers into the middle of the British line during the Battle of Saratoga and earned the nickname "The Madman" in the process.

Lynch writes that Mrs. Clinton who during her campaign for NYS Senator was confused about the geography of New York. There is also a piece on Nelson Rockefeller, who got almost everything he wanted as governor, including the Empire State Plaza, but never got what he really wanted -- the presidency.

In "Battered & Bullied by the Brusque, Brutal Bureaucracy," Lynch tells the stories of people pushed around by NYS Government - people like Bob Allen, Jr., who tried to take over his father's paving business when his father died and ran up against the mindless bureaucracy at DMV. A clerk wouldn't issue him a commercial license because a guy with the same name was in trouble with DMV in another state, and Mike Schmidt, who along with other people owned a camp in Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve, until the town of Clifton Park asked the state to throw them out because camps didn't fit in with the town's master plan for the preserve.

Lynch has a way of telling a story that brings the people he's writing about to life. Even if you thought you knew all there was to know, he will find a way to tell you something new. He will also make you laugh, cry and shake your head in disgust along the way. Whether he's writing about the seeming callousness of political fundraisers or everyday heroes, most of all, he will make you think.

Lynch's book has many more stories told with his unique point of view. It is a book you won't want to put down, and you probably won't look at some of the famous people in the book in the same way ever again.

Marci Blake is an associate editor at Empire Information Services.

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04/22/2003