Rating: 
Summary: Good, but hardly great
Review: Rich Cohen writes well at times. However, this book is not well edited. It's difficult to keep the gangsters straight. Too many of them surface and then disappear only to reappear fifty pages later. Even the main characters like Kid Twist and Buggsy Goldstein are not clearly delineated until the end.Another problem with the book is that Cohen attempts to condone the behavior of the gangsters as if their actions were not inappropriate given their plight. He suggests that as immigrants evolve from outsiders into mainstream citizens they, inevitably, are required to become criminals. I like to think I'm a tough Jew, and my dad sure is, as was his father. When confronted with injustice my grandfather used to say, "By me, they wouldn't get away with it." And the "they" didn't. Yet both my grandfather, and dad would/consider the behavior of criminals unconscionable. I'm not sure that cutting up people makes one tough. Making it without succumbing to inhumane behavior, fighting the corrupt successfully when you don't have a knife in your hands, that makes one tough.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but hardly great
Review: Rich Cohen writes well at times. However, this book is not well edited. It's difficult to keep the gangsters straight. Too many of them surface and then disappear only to reappear fifty pages later. Even the main characters like Kid Twist and Buggsy Goldstein are not clearly delineated until the end. Another problem with the book is that Cohen attempts to condone the behavior of the gangsters as if their actions were not inappropriate given their plight. He suggests that as immigrants evolve from outsiders into mainstream citizens they, inevitably, are required to become criminals. I like to think I'm a tough Jew, and my dad sure is, as was his father. When confronted with injustice my grandfather used to say, "By me, they wouldn't get away with it." And the "they" didn't. Yet both my grandfather, and dad would/consider the behavior of criminals unconscionable. I'm not sure that cutting up people makes one tough. Making it without succumbing to inhumane behavior, fighting the corrupt successfully when you don't have a knife in your hands, that makes one tough.
Rating: 
Summary: HORRIBLE!
Review: The author should be ashamed. Most stories are taken directly from Burton Turkus' 1950's book, "Murder Inc." An especially irritating practice of the author is that he precedes most of his stories with phrases such as "I can imagine Lefty...," or "I can picture him ..." The truth is, if he didn't read it in "Murder Inc.," he made it up. A last note, the mean streets of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where the author's father grew up and these stories supposedly originated, were then and are now, anything but mean.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Begining
Review: The Jewish community, it seems to me, is undergoing an intersting self-examination these days where we celebrate those of our faith who have accomplished "non-Jewish" things. Whether we are celebrating them for being athletes, musicians, politicians (Lieberman) or even gangsters, we're thrilled when Jews are not Doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, etc. Cohen's amazement that at one time there really were "tough Jews" fits within that theme. I'm sure there are other books with more detail and I gather that much of the information in this book was either availabkle or taken from other examinations of the subject but it is the context from which Cohen looks at this which makes this book more interesting. As a young boy in suburban IL, he did not believe all of his Dad's stories about the tough Jews of the old days. And, even today, as his Dad's friends gather and kibbutz, it seems too unbelievable that Jews once behaved in this manner. Even more amazing is to think that all of this occurred before the Holocaust, before our people were accused of being too meek or weak. I found the book an interesting cursory review of Jewish gangsters but a more intersting exmination of how Jews view themselves and their (sometimes checkered) heritage.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Begining
Review: The Jewish community, it seems to me, is undergoing an intersting self-examination these days where we celebrate those of our faith who have accomplished "non-Jewish" things. Whether we are celebrating them for being athletes, musicians, politicians (Lieberman) or even gangsters, we're thrilled when Jews are not Doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, etc. Cohen's amazement that at one time there really were "tough Jews" fits within that theme. I'm sure there are other books with more detail and I gather that much of the information in this book was either availabkle or taken from other examinations of the subject but it is the context from which Cohen looks at this which makes this book more interesting. As a young boy in suburban IL, he did not believe all of his Dad's stories about the tough Jews of the old days. And, even today, as his Dad's friends gather and kibbutz, it seems too unbelievable that Jews once behaved in this manner. Even more amazing is to think that all of this occurred before the Holocaust, before our people were accused of being too meek or weak. I found the book an interesting cursory review of Jewish gangsters but a more intersting exmination of how Jews view themselves and their (sometimes checkered) heritage.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Begining
Review: The Jewish community, it seems to me, is undergoing an intersting self-examination these days where we celebrate those of our faith who have accomplished "non-Jewish" things. Whether we are celebrating them for being athletes, musicians, politicians (Lieberman) or even gangsters, we're thrilled when Jews are not Doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, etc. Cohen's amazement that at one time there really were "tough Jews" fits within that theme. I'm sure there are other books with more detail and I gather that much of the information in this book was either availabkle or taken from other examinations of the subject but it is the context from which Cohen looks at this which makes this book more interesting. As a young boy in suburban IL, he did not believe all of his Dad's stories about the tough Jews of the old days. And, even today, as his Dad's friends gather and kibbutz, it seems too unbelievable that Jews once behaved in this manner. Even more amazing is to think that all of this occurred before the Holocaust, before our people were accused of being too meek or weak. I found the book an interesting cursory review of Jewish gangsters but a more intersting exmination of how Jews view themselves and their (sometimes checkered) heritage.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable in spite of poor writing
Review: The material is so interesting that even Rich Cohen's poor writing style and idiotic commentary can't ruin it. It's worth reading but made me hunger for a more thorough, better written history. Second, some of the errors in the book are really pathetic. Mr. Cohen describes the intersection of two streets that run parallel to one another. He also misspells "Centre Street" as "Center Street". Third, he has the anoying habit of interjecting himself into the book when it serves no purpose. Who really cares that a kid from the suburbs of Chicago now lives around the corner from where a murder once took place? Which brings us to a final matter. Mr. Cohen really doesn't seem to have a sense of what it's like to grow up in Brooklyn or to really understand what these gangsters were about. I grew up in Brooklyn and it ain't Kansas and it sure ain't the suburbs of Chicago. But true crime books tend on the whole to be poorly written and Mr. Cohen could have mangled the material even more. Enough interesting material remains to make it worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read. Godfather Meets Duddy Kravitz. Fun, Fun, Fun!
Review: This book is a combination of Goodfellas, the Godfather, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and In Search of Bobby Fisher. The author gives us an amazing historical account of the fathers of modern organized crime -- most of whom were jewish and all of whom were incredibly colorful. The biggest surprise, however, is that the most colorful characters in the book are not the gangsters (with names like Tic Toc, Bugsy and Kid Twist), but the author's non-gangster father and his buddies. The history is terrific. Nevertheless, the book really sings when we learn about the antics of Herbie (the author's dad), Larry (King -- the CNN guy), Sid and Asher: four Brooklyn kids who followed the gangsters like most of us follow sports teams. The book is informative, poignant and, at times, hysterically funny. I've given the book as a gift to a half dozen people, and they've all raved about it. It is one of the few books around that will appeal to almost everyone. This is a no risk purchase. By the way, if you like this book, you may want to check out the author's father's book about negotiating; it too is a real piece of work.
Rating:
Summary: Jew were not alway just accountants!
Review: This book is a wonderful example of looking into an ethnic group, the Jews, and seeing how they survived all through the ages. Though religously their method may not have been excepted, but they, like their ancestors changed to fit their surroundings. This book is not about Jews though, it is about Jewish Gangsters. It tells how the Jews and Italians built up Brooklyn in the thirtees and fourtees to be a major oraganized crime town.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautifully Written Tale of A World Now Gone
Review: This book really caught me off guard. I expected the usual direct delivery of lurid information and engrossing real-crime stories. While the book delivers the goods regarding the gangsters of jewish Brooklyn, it does so in a very unconventional manner. Unlike most gangster books, the author writes beautifully. He avoids the usual Jack Webb, just-the-facts-ma'm delivery. Instead, you get what must be the sweetest, most lyrical book about murderers ever written (including In Cold Blood). The book is also, at times, extremely funny and remarkably poignant. The author does a exceptional job of capturing his father, describing what the gangsters meant to his father and, in turn, what his father means to him. If you are looking for a charming book (about a not so charming topic) that is chock full of information and that has the kind of mythic, mystic tone you usually find in F. Scott Fitzgerald, this is your book. If, on the other hand, you are a neanderthal looking fo! r a fix of thoughtless blood, guts and gore delivered in a package that will neither challenge nor inspire, I'd skip this one.
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