Title: The Salsa King of Scarsdale
Author: Ben Fine
Publisher: Hancock Press
ISBN: 9781948000680
Pages: 163
Genre: Fiction/Humor
Reviewed by: C.C. Thomas

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Author Ben Fine has created a lovable yet frustrating main character in his humorous novel, The Salsa King of Scarsdale. Ira is one of those characters whose antics and adventures you are going to equally laugh at and groan about, all the while realizing he is a little too close for comfort in his too-human failures in love. What’s more, the reader isn’t the only one who is both rattled by and endeared to Ira.

Ellen, Ira’s mother, is proud of her son. He is a polite, well-to-do gynecologist. After all, what’s not to love? He’s a nice Jewish boy, a doctor who treats his mother’s friends with respect, including his having uncomfortable conversations about their lagging married sexual relationships.

Ira, however, sees himself a bit differently than his mother. He became a gynecologist so that he could look at gorgeous naked women all day. However, the only action he gets is from his mother’s aging friends. The visits pay him well, but leave him disgusted and uncomfortable. He drives a Mercedes to impress others and worries obsessively about his body. By most accounts, he’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Ira’s life is soon turned upside down when he is given the task of hosting interviews for an X-ray technician in his office. The tech, Inez, is stunningly beautiful and Ira is soon having very inappropriate thoughts. He almost immediately offers her the job. While he does get some flack from his office mates for the quick hire, Inez fits in well and becomes the best part of Ira’s day. Ira is so smitten with Inez that he incorporates some life-altering changes. He starts learning Spanish and overhauls his wardrobe, embracing a lifestyle that befuddles all who know him. The infatuation grows to an obsession and soon Ira adopts the Latina culture as his own. His wife mocks him and his mother is quite disturbed by all the changes. What happened to her boy?

In The Salsa King of Scarsdale, Fine has created the perfectly imperfect protagonist. He is distasteful, yet charming, with ideas that are larger than life and too humanly relatable. While the reader might roll their eyes at some of his antics, realizing how much we have in common with the aging Ira makes him a bit more likeable on all levels. While there is a message in the story, the real treat is in the laughter as Ira deals with his own craziness, the harping of his disappointed mother, and the realistic advice of his long-suffering wife. Whether or not Ira ever secures the crown of Scarsdale’s Salsa King will be worth the read. By the end, believe it or not, you’ll be rooting for the hero and hoping his dreams of becoming a dancing king work out for the best.