A highly readable, fast-moving contribution to the annals of 20th-century organized crime.
The gangland father of Las Vegas comes in for a fresh appraisal.
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906-1947) is the first gangster to be included in the Jewish Lives series, now more than 50 titles strong. As Vanity Fair contributing editor Shnayerson notes, Siegel had the “dubious distinction” of representing four broad classes of criminality: bootlegger, racketeer, gambler, and murderer. His career began in the tenements of New York, where some of the children of immigrant Jews pulled away from traditions and formed gangs. Siegel was an enforcer, shaking down street vendors for protection money. As he entered adulthood, he and fellow kid gangster Meyer Lansky aligned with Sicilian immigrant Lucky Luciano to form an underworld army. “The Syndicate, as it became known,” writes the author, “would be American in the truest sense: an amalgam of immigrants making their way in the New World,” helmed and staffed by people practicing capitalism in its purest form. Smart and good looking, Siegel took his criminal gains to Hollywood, becoming a celebrity, “Gatsby with a penchant to kill.” He also had a grand vision: Jews were frozen out of Reno, where gambling was legal, but the Las Vegas of the 1930s was wide open, and he foresaw a time when casinos on the Monte Carlo model would lure visitors from all over the world. Building one such casino, the Flamingo, eventually brought him afoul of Luciano and the Syndicate, for construction costs ballooned, with much of the difference skimmed. Even when the Flamingo began to turn a profit thanks to busy tables and acts like Lena Horne and the Andrews Sisters, the heat didn’t get turned down. Siegel was infamously gunned down at home. The author’s theory about the killer’s identity is novel but perfectly plausible—and in any event, “Ben Siegel’s imprint on Vegas grows with each next brand-new super resort.”
A highly readable, fast-moving contribution to the annals of 20th-century organized crime.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-300-22619-5
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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