Charlie Carillo

As a teenager, Mickey DeFalco hit the big time with a sweet love song he wrote after his girlfriend ran away from home with no warning. Now it's twenty years later and Mickey has hit rock bottom - he's broke, a failure, and back in his old bedroom at his parent's house in Brooklyn. He's even got his old job back of mowing lawns. Surprisingly though, Lynn, the girl who left him heartbroken all those years ago, is also back in town caring for her ailing mother. Will Mickey be given a second show more chance at love, or was he truly a one hit wonder?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and didn't want to put it down. It's told from Mickey's point of view in both the present day and a series of flashbacks. MIckey doesn't make the best decisions in his life, but he's overall a pretty decent guy and has a wonderfully sarcastic, wisecracking voice that gives the story plenty of humor. There are tender moments too, as we see Mickey finally growing up and re-establishing his relationship with his parents and with Lynn. While there is love in it, I wouldn't classify it as a romance, but rather that genre of guy-lit that you find with authors like Tom Perrotta or Nick Hornby. You'll end up feeling good after reading One Hit Wonder. show less

Blurb: Back in the Eighties, Mickey DeFalco was America's teenage heartthrob with spiky gelled hair, slanted sideburns, and a number-one hit single -- "Sweet Days" -- a sappy love song he wrote after his high school sweetheart, Lynn Mahoney, broke his heart. Now approaching middle age, Mickey is lucky to land a singing gig at a bar mitzvah. So the one-hit wonder-boy is making a different kind of comeback -- returning to his old stomping grounds in Queens, living with his parents, and show more sleeping in his childhood bed. Just like in high school. And speaking of blasts from the past, Lynn is also back in town -- as beautiful, beguiling, and baffling as ever...
Sometimes life can feel like a broken record. But even a one-hit wonder deserves a second chance.

What Stephanie Thought: Oh, be still, my beating heart. Want to be swept away with charm, the kind we haven't seen since recluses like J.D. Salinger or S.E. Hinton? Want to laugh until your lungs ache, or giggle like a schoolgirl? Then read One Hit Wonder. Funny, poignant, and unforgettable, One Hit Wonder joins the leagues of my "favorites" shelf. And not only because Mickey DeFalco is my newest character crush either.
Charlie Carillo writes in easy prose that doesn't take too much effort to enjoy. But rather than his writing style that is made prominent in this novel, it's the characters he creates that really shine. Even the supporting characters, even the antagonists -- the "villains" -- are made likable. Not in a way where I wish the attention is taken away from Mickey, but in a way that I want to meet ALL of them in real life.
No one can describe heartbreak better than a heartbroken man. And Mickey DeFalco was heartbroken twenty years ago; he still hasn't let go of the girl, though. Lynn Mahoney didn't just leave him -- she disappeared. Everything had been going fine between her and Mickey, but she just vanished. Thus Mickey composed a song, a song only a girl like Lynn could appreciate, one that was heard by the wrong pair of ears and instantly made a #1 hit in the country. Mickey never asked for that kind of success, but with the numbness in his heart, he really couldn't tell the difference between fame and happiness.
Twenty years later, his song is all but forgotten, but he's a broke man who's just lost his pool-cleaning job. The solution? To go live with his parents in his hometown -- the town where he lost Lynn Mahoney. I thought it was really interesting to really see what a one-hit wonder does after his success simmers. We all know of the ones from the eighties, and of the ones that are more recent. They're legends, but where are the physical people? One Hit Wonder gives a glimpse in the life of a former one-hit wonder, displaying how shockingly normal and uneventful it is.
To Mickey's dear fright, Lynn Mahoney is back in Queens after all those years too -- finally. He attempts to rekindle the innocent childhood relationship they had, but she's more than reluctant, and Mickey's determined to find out why.
Personal tragedy, loss, and misconception are all illustrated penetratingly in Carillo's novel, with plenty of wit and humor to spare. I think anyone will enjoy living the life of a celebrity who was once on top, then very abruptly fell to rock bottom.
The only reason I'm not giving One Hit Wonder ten hearts is because some of it seems unrealistic. There are about fifteen random women Mickey describes having sex with throughout his lifetime. At first, it's pretty amusing, but I got weary of it quickly because his "game" got stale after the first five times he described it.
Other than that, Carillo's One Hit Wonder is one of those books you'll start reading immediately after you finish it -- yes, it's that good.

Stephanie Loves: "I played ["Sweet Days"] twice a day -- once at the early show, then again at the later one. The rest of my repertoire included songs my the Carpenters, Captain & Tennille, The Commodores...love songs, nothing but love songs, one more dreadful than the next.
It was what was known in the business as an Insulin Set. You needed an injection of the stuff at the end of the night to prevent a diabetic coma from all those sugary sounds."

Where Stephanie Got It: LibraryThing for review.

Radical Rating: 9 hearts- One of my all-time favorites! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ show less

Mickey DeFalco is a washed-up has-been, a true one-hit wonder. He left his Bronx family as a teenager to seek fame in LA when the song he wrote after his high school sweetheart broke up with him became a hit. He made it work as long as possible, but 20 years later he’s broke, unemployed, and out of options. It’s time to go home. Back living with his parents he discovers that his old girlfriend Lynn is also back home – maybe he can rekindle the love he hasn’t been able to leave show more behind.

One Hit Wonder is a sweet book about a man who hasn’t quite grown up. He’s a bit of a slacker with no plan and no skills. He’s not a bad guy, he just needs to focus. His parents are doting but also a little wiser than they seem on the surface. His dad understands him like Mickey never thought possible, and his mom isn’t quite the naïf he’s always imagined her to be.

The book was an easy read and a fun (if clichéd) snapshot of a changing Bronx neighborhood. The neighborhood is filled with the Italian and Irish families from Mickey’s childhood and we get a good sense of Mickey’s early years. The main sour note for me was Mickey’s sweetheart Lynn. Her character isn’t as robust as the others – does she still have a thing for Mickey or not? It’s impossible to tell until she makes a move – there’s no foreshadowing of her changes of heart. Her behavior is unpredictable, her motivations unknown (not only to the reader but seemly to Mickey too). Why does Mickey even bother? She’s just not that interesting.

And though most of the book is sweet and light-hearted, the story takes a dark (but not unexpected) turn in the last 30 pages or so. Though I anticipated the general nature of Lynn’s past secrets, the depth of depravity was a bit much. Carillo hits us over the head repeatedly with a sledgehammer when a couple of taps with a ball peen would have sufficed. And the subplot is ridiculously unbelievable and completely unnecessary.

So generally One Hit Wonder is an easy, entertaining, diversionary read, with some serious flaws. This was my first Charlie Carillo book and I won’t be picking up any of his previous books and I'll donate my copy this one to the library instead of passing it on to a friend. show less

This is an absolutely charming novel - mostly taking place over New Year's Eve in New York.
Jimmy is ready to propose to Wendy in the restaurant on top of the Rockefeller Center, but they argue and he storms out. He gets drunk in a sleazy bar, and somehow takes a tart home to his loft. When she draws a knife, he pushes her and she hits her head on a lamp - dead just like that. What can he do? He calls Gus ...
This novel all about family - blood is thicker than water as they say. Despite the show more setup with shades of 'The Sopranos', it is witty and charming, and Jimmy grows up overnight to accept what he ran away from twenty years previously. Loved it. show less