Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob
- ISBN-10
- 0393245594
- ISBN-13
- 9780393245592
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 272
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2021-02-02
- Publisher
- W. W. Norton & Company
- Author
- Russell Shorto
Description
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Best-selling author Russell Shorto, praised for his incisive works of narrative history, never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: You’re a writer—what are you gonna do about the story? Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town. Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life—and wife—in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family. But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father—Tony, the mobster’s son—as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony’s health deteriorates, the book become an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob
By Russell ShortoA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America.
-
The Island At The Center Of The World: The Epic Story Of Dutch Manhattan And The Forgotten Colony That Shaped...
By Russell ShortoA history of the Dutch role in the establishment of Manhattan discusses the rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic, focusing on the power struggle between Holland governor Peter Stuyvesant and politician Adriaen van der Donck that ...
-
Gospel Truth: On the Trail of the Historical Jesus
By Russell ShortoWhere did he live? What did he think? And was the Bible’s account true? In Gospel Truth, bestselling author Russell Shorto (The Island at the Center of the World) brings a journalist’s eye to the life of Jesus Christ.
-
Revolution Song: The Story of America's Founding in Six Remarkable Lives
By Russell Shorto“An engaging piece of historical detective work and narrative craft.” —Chicago Tribune At a time when America’s founding principles are being debated as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles ...
-
Disastrous Floods and the Demise of Steel in Johnstown
By Pat FarabaughAuthor Pat Farabaugh charts the harrowing history of Johnstown's great floods and the effects on its economic lifeblood.
-
The Bosses Club: The conspiracy that caused the Johnstown Flood,destroying the iron and steel capital of America
By Richard A. Gregory762 Kelly's Converter, John H. Lienhard; Keystone Foundry museum, Hopewell Area Senior Citizens; Lonaconing, www.mdmunicipal. ... The Johnstown Country Club; wiggins & m'Killop's Johnstown, & C. directory; webb's Johnstown directory; ...
-
The Sinatra Club: My Life Inside the New York Mafia
By Steve Dougherty, Sal PolisiVinny delivered the documents—a full set of abso- lutely legit-looking IDs, including a driver's license, a birth certificate, and a Social Security card, all in the name of Jane Parker—within a week, but before I gave them to Lisa, ...
-
Dog Flowers: A Memoir, an Archive
By Danielle GellerSHORTLISTED FOR: The Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, The Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Esquire, She Reads When Danielle Geller’s mother dies of alcohol withdrawal during an attempt to get ...
-
Banished from Johnstown: Racist Backlash in Pennsylvania
By Cody McDevittAuthor and journalist Cody McDevitt tells the story of one of the worst civil rights injustices in Western Pennsylvania history.
-
Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street
By Gary WeissLee Polanski was driving his skyblue Cadillac convertible down a street in Merrick, Long Island, when he saw the three guys, walking. Lee was heading north on Frankel Boulevard, taking his wife Jessica to the train station.