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Mancini book debuts to ‘insane’ sales
BOARDMAN
On her way to the gym on Tuesday evening, Lisa Malie made a quick stop at the Barnes & Noble in the Shops at Boardman Park.
She went right to the display stand, near the front of the store, that had her childhood friend, one-time boyfriend and Cardinal Mooney High classmate’s face on it.
The million dollar mug on the sign belongs to Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini.
“Raymond and I grew up together on the South Side,” Malie said, “in the Pemberton neighborhood.”
She skimmed over the newly-released biography of Mancini — “The Good Son,” by Mark Kriegel — looking for a particular part of the book.
The part about her.
“He warned me that I’d be mentioned in it,” Malie said with a laugh. “I had to see what it said before anyone else.”
She and Mancini remain good friends and communicate over the phone several times a year and she insists he promised that her snippet of the story is positive.
“We’ll see what his spin on it is,” Malie said as the laughs continued. “And we’ll compare it to mine.”
She’s excited for the book to take her back to the ‘70s, a time she fondly remembers.
“I feel like this is my story too,” Malie said. “There’s a lot of people that we grew up with who are mentioned in the book and we grew up right alongside him.”
The official release of “The Good Son” was Tuesday, but the Boardman retailer has had the book on shelves for about a week.
Millisa Fegley, manager at Barnes & Noble, said the store received more than 200 copies. Sales of the book have been “insane,” she said.
“The attention surrounding it has been crazy,” Fegley said. “They’ve been blowing out of the store every night.”
Recently, local politicians Tim Ryan and Jim Traficant staged book signings at the store. Fegley said several hundred people came out for each event and that her store sold out of each edition.
With a little more than a week remaining until Mancini comes to town for a signing, Fegley says the hype has exceeded that of Ryan and Traficant.
“I think people are a little tired of always reading about politics,” she said. “This may be a little more fun.”
Fegley played a large part in scheduling and organizing the Traficant and Ryan signing, but the store was contacted by the corporate offices of Barnes & Noble regarding Mancini, who is considered a “national” figure.
“The phones are buzzing,” Fegley said. “A lot of people thought he was coming today [Tuesday]. I’ve been used to saying ‘No, it’s next week.’ But we’re very excited about it and glad so many people care.”
Mancini has also told her that he plans to stay after the store’s closing on Sept. 27 at 9 p.m.
As of Tuesday night, there were 41 sellers offering the hardcover book on Amazon.com.
The New York Times ran an excerpt of it on Monday and several predominant websites such as goodreads.com have recommended it.
A four-star review of it, submitted by David V. said, “This book gets into Ray Mancini’s head, not just his life. Mr. Kriegel’s skill lets you feel his victory and pain.”