Gordon Korman’s new YA novel, Son of the Mob, is a comically winning combination of The Sopranos and Romeo and Juliet. Except for the fact that his father is a Mafia don, Vince Luca is a typical 17-year- old. His teachers are on his back to “get motivated.” His best friend Alex is on his back, begging Vince to get a girlfriend because Alex is anxious to have a love life, if only vicariously through Vince. His father is on his back, encouraging him to join the family enterprise, which he euphemistically calls the “vending machine business.”

Vince’s decision to get motivated kicks Korman’s hilarious high-concept plot into farce speed. He gets a girlfriend, Kendra Bightly, who turns out to be the daughter of an FBI agent, the infamous “Agent Bite-me” whom Vince’s father has been tauntingly saying goodnight to for years via the latest bugging device planted in the Luca home. The web site for cat lovers that Vince designed for his media class starts getting a suspiciously high number of hits. And despite Vince’s vow to stay on the legal side of the street, he gets sucked into the family business when he helps out Jimmy Rat with his loan shark debts.

Korman, who has written over 30 children’s books, makes the most of the contradictions and craziness of Vince’s life in a fast-paced, dialogue-driven story. While some of the sitcom-style humour is clichéd and predictable, it is funny. A self-deprecating pessimist with a deadpan style, Vince peppers his entertaining narration with sharp one-liners. While Vince’s romance with Kendra is central, it’s uninspired; it’s Vince’s relationship with the mob that has clearly sparked Korman’s creative ardour.