Where I Went Wrong

Tony Mazza is having a bad day, which is what a lot of his days are like lately. He’s worked at a real estate agency, a bike shop, and a bar, among other places, and he’s currently managing as a hospital orderly. Or at least he was until, high on Percocet, he drove off with stolen property in an ambulance owned by the hospital and crashed into another ambulance. “Where did I go wrong?” he wonders aloud from his jail cell. Tony often wonders about this, whether it’s losing the affection of his kids (he’s twice divorced) or making a gaffe when selling a house to a prospective buyer. But he’s not hapless, he’s rather smart, and he’s even rather likeable. So where did he go wrong? This question keeps cropping up as each chapter takes Tony further back in time: issues with his first wife, disastrous investments, unfortunate family events in high school and earlier . . . all the way back to his birth, as recounted by his mother. Where I Went Wrong is Tony Mazza’s story, a novel that’s both comic and serious, exploring why some people fail while others get away with little short of murder.

Praise & Reviews

A 2025 Notable Title in the Shelf Unbound Indie Awards
Shortlisted for the 2025 Somerset Book Awards

“Tony Mazza is the ne’er-do-wellest of ne’er-do-wells, equally inept at romance and retail, whose best intentions invariably transmute gold to lead. His countless wrong turns ultimately see him joyride a stolen ambulance into a Porsche while intoxicated, but along the way, he manages to lose two wives, multiple careers, a college education and even a baby sister. In Where I Went Wrong, David Galef ’s rollicking romp in reverse through Mazza’s bungled backstory, readers enjoy a Faulknerian tour de voice of minor mishaps and boomeranging pranks that strip-mine high comedy from the real estate offices and taverns of suburban New Jersey. From its riotous conclusions to its poignant start, Galef takes us up the rabbit hole into Mazza’s magical mayhem. A wry masterpiece and a must-read for anyone who has ever screwed up royally.”
—Jacob M. Appel, author of Einstein’s Beach House

“Where I Went Wrong is a wistful, engaging, and ingeniously told story of a man who must figure out just when and where his life began to fly off the rails. It’s a coming-of-age story in reverse, with a surprise ending (or is it a beginning?) that may just send you back to page one to reread the whole thing in a different light.”
—Gary Krist, author of The Mirage Factory

“David Galef ’s Where I Went Wrong is a novel of striving, failure, and more striving—lovely, deft and bittersweet. It’s the story fading industrial Jersey has been waiting for.
—D. T. Max, author of Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace