Charlie Stella is a 52-year-old who can bench-press more than 400 pounds. Perhaps even more astonishing, he's an accomplished novelist who can bench 400 pounds. (Jonathan Safran Foer, presumably, cannot claim likewise).
Much like his hobby, Charlie Stella's background isn't exactly congruent with his literary bona fides. Born in Little Italy back when Italians lived there, Stella, now 52, grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn, the setting for mob paradigm Goodfellas. While not a wiseguy himself, Stella was a "knockaround" guy: "anybody you know doing technically illegal things to make ends meet." In his case, it was bookmaking.
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