“Things sure do happen to you,” says an aunt to little six-year-old Jimmy Christinzio, after a Hollywood cowboy tried to shoot him with real bullets. Little Jimmy grew up to be writer and raconteur Jim Christy, who has rambled the planet meeting royalty and rounders and everything in between. In Jackpots he collects fragments from the pages of an extraordinary life, sketching the memorable characters and remarkable adventures that destiny threw his way. From his youth in the mean streets of South Philadelphia and brushes with the mob, to jobs on the carnival circuit, to arriving in Canada during the Vietnam era and more recent travels in search of wild elephants, the chapters of Jackpots trace a fascinating journey in colourful Christy style. Combining the toughness of Elmore Leonard and the moral integrity of Raymond Chandler, Jim Christy chronicles life’s surprises and coincidences with humour, heart and vision. In Jackpots the reader encounters mob boss Tony Amsterdam, firebreather Marcel Horne, Leland, the alligator man, and cowboy side-kick Fuzzy St. John. Richly peopled with elegant riffraff, rogues and saints, the stories of Jackpots are sharp as a nail and pack a hammer’s wallop – true tales that read like pure fiction.

Always in search of original characters and experiences, Jim Christy is a literary vagabond with few peers. He was once described by George Woodcock as “one of the last unpurged North American anarchistic romantics.” His publisher has called him a hip Indiana Jones; one reviewer credited him with a “Gary Cooper-like presence.” His buddies have included hobos, jazz musicians, boxers, and non-academic writers such as Charles Bukowski, Peter Trower and Joe Ferone. “I never dismiss another’s story out of hand,” he writes, “no matter what it’s about or how outrageous it may seem.” Christy’s often wry reminiscences of his travels, trysts and trials are fuelled by a hard-won pride. A gardener, a sculptor and a spoken word performer with a jazz/blues ensemble, Christy has been seen in film and television productions, usually in non-speaking roles as a thug or a gangster.

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