(Schmand, Timothy) Timothy Schmand fled upstate New York’s oppressive winters and settled in South Florida in 1982. Schmand’s award-winning fiction has appeared in literary journals, popular magazines and anthologies, including the Miami Herald, Time Out Miami and the Holland Herald. He is a recipient of the Calvino Prize. Populated by Miami’s fits and misfits, Schmand’s latest novel, Just Johnson: The London Delivery (Jitney Books), traces the exploits of our hero – Johnson – a driver and delivery man for Stephen Teitelbaum (aka The Fat Man) the 490-pound criminal mastermind, who manages the remains of Meyer Lansky’s Miami Beach operation. Johnson’s live-in girlfriend, Alexandra Cohen (aka Al), is a marketing consultant whose employment takes her to London. She asks Johnson to join her. To afford the trip Johnson arranges a delivery for one of The Fat Man’s many friends. From London to Miami and back, Just Johnson: The London Delivery is a rumbling, unstoppable freight train of a tale that bounces between the 80s and mid 90s. This novel confirms that some things will never change in this city. Miami is weird, weird, weird – and that’s why we love it so.
