GYPSIES DON'T LIE

About the Book

KING OF THE JUNGLE brings a movie Tarzan, Johnny Weismuller, to Flushing Meadows in 1939, and transports the reader to the world of a heroic immigrant Polish mother trying to raise her two children among New York City tenements, where people with hopeful dreams are preyed upon by very real nightmares. In the tradition of Crane, Norris, and Dreiser, author Jan Merlin gives us an utterly Darwinian view of survival. Encompassing the cruel use of Hollywood´s escapism, the novel clearly and sensitively presents real people and their contributions to America and the national identity. This book serves as another Rosetta Stone to American immigrant experience. Not since “Call It Sleep” and “Angela’s Ashes” has one work so encompassed the joy and despair of family life.

About the Author

Jan Merlin was born and raised in New York City. At the outset of WW II, he enlisted in the US Navy to serve as torpedoman aboard destroyers in the North Atlantic and South Pacific fleets, accumulating ten battle stars before entering Japan with the first Occupation Force group. Upon returning to civilian life, he enrolled in the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater and made his Broadway debut in MISTER ROBERTS. A twice nominated Emmy award winning writer, his professional acting career includes being starred or featured in numerous plays, several hundred live and filmed televison appearances, and more than thirty motion picture films made in the United States and abroad.