Smalltime - A Story of My Family and the Mob (Paperback)

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.An urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Smalltime is a moving, wryly funny and richly detailed memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.

General

Imprint:	W W Norton & Co Inc
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	March 2022
Authors:	Russell Shorto
Dimensions:	211 x 140 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	288
ISBN-13:	978-1-324-02017-2
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > History > World history > From 1900 > General Books > Biography > General
LSN:	1-324-02017-2
Barcode:	9781324020172

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