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Novels in New York # 34: The Gang of New York in New York


The first thing I would say is that how could it happen that this book, published in the U.S. in 1928, remained unpublished in Italy for seventy-three years.
And unfortunately I believe, with little fear of making mistakes, it would stay forever if he had not inspired the namesake movie directed by Martin Scorsese in 2002 (and filmed almost entirely in the Cinecitta studios in Rome). Ringraziando Scorsese, Leonardo Di Caprio e Cameron Diaz per aver di fatto consentito la lettura di queste pagine, passiamo ai contenuti.
Le Gang di New York (Gangs of New York) non è un romanzo vero e proprio, ma è, per usare le parole dell'autore, "un tentativo di narrare fedelmente le gesta più spettacolari del cittadino ribelle che per almeno un centinaio di anni rappresentò un pericoloso flagello per New York, sottolineandone il background di vizio povertà e corruzione politica tanto da rendere comprensibile la sua personalità".
Cento anni di gang, di storie criminali, di figure e situazioni tanto incredibili quanto vere. La ricostruzione di Herbert Asbury (1889-1963), journalist and novelist, is precise and full of charm, despite the harshness and cruelty of the themes of some characters. I cite, for example, the legendary Albert E. Hicks, convicted murderer to death, whose execution by hanging in 1860 on the island of Bedloe (which would house the Statue of Liberty ), was a true spectacle for the city, complete with a boat trip and lunch to book in advance.
And Bill the Butcher ( "Bill the Butcher" ), John Morrissey, Louie the Lamp, Kid Twist, Monk Eastman, described and presented with pictures that seem to come from the cartoons an old Dick Tracy comic .
The New York show of the century in vividly, ruthless and corrupt. Roads and places such as The Tombs (the prison), the sinister Bowery Theatre, Center Street, the neighborhood known as Five Points, Hell's Kitchen, Paradise Square, give off a sordid fascination with their history but also through the writing of Asbury: "Edward Coleman, one of gansgter originating in Paradise Square, fell in love with a girl known around the neighborhood selling the cobs as the beautiful warm. He married her after fierce fights with a dozen suitors and eventually killed when the proceeds of the wife turned out to be below expectations. "
The guide to Asbury is on time, not without irony, and cites dozens of gangs, analyze trends and rituals, explains the nicknames and tells the endless fights, crimes on a commission basis with a lot of price list distributed on the streets of the city (scarring on the cheek from 1 to $ 10, bullet in the leg 5 to $ 25 and so on. ..).
The Gang of New York is a book that can fascinate the student of the city and the curiosity of every reader. Many of the buildings and places mentioned in the book are missing or completely transformed, and this adds value to the work of Asbury, it makes a sort of guide to the disappearance of New York, New York slum, where the line between legal and illegal was confused and evanescent, with teams of firefighters to fire and plunder, criminals who dream of do the cops and cops who are criminals.
close with a note on a beautiful cover of the book reproduces that of No January 13, 1906 the magazine Bowery Boy Library . For those, like myself, is sensitive to the charm of vintage illustrations is a must a jump to this section of the site Syracuse University, where you can find many other covers of the historic weekly, published at the time by Street and Smith.
The Gang of New York, Herbert Asbury, Garzanti, 2001

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Novels # 33: A Drama Aquarius


For the city of New York the importance of a drama Aquarius (The Penguin Pool Murder) del prolifico giallista Stuart Palmer (1905-1968) va ben oltre il piacevole intreccio narrativo e il debutto letterario dell'insegnante investigatrice Hildegarde Withers, signorina agée, ironica e determinata (in pratica una zitella).
L'aspetto più interessante della vicenda, pubblicata negli USA nel 1931, è la sua ambientazione che si snoda all'interno di una delle meraviglie della Big Apple sparita: il New York Aquarium, il favoloso acquario della città inaugurato nel 1896 e realizzato all'interno delle mura di Castle Clinton, la più celebre costruzione di Battery Park , nella punta estrema della downtown di Manhattan.
L'acquario, dopo aver subito importanti modifiche 20 years, was destroyed in 1941 as a follow-urbanist project that Robert Moses wanted to make a bridge between Battery Park and Brooklyn. The project was later blocked, but now there was the Aquarium. Castle Clinton to the outer wall remains today, still characteristic point of the city, while the fish swim in a new facility in Coney Island.
In 1932 the book was made into a film directed by George Archainbaud and unprecedented in Italy, where you can admire the historic aquarium. We can do it too by clicking here . Miss Withers is a feature film starring Edna May Oliver, who will screen two more times this character.
The Aquarium was a marvel Palmer and yellow are often quite good: "The office of Mr. Bertrand B. Hemingway, director of the aquarium is on the left of the main entrance. hemicycle Located as it is formed by the body at the base of the building , is illuminated by two large windows one of which overlooks the lower Manhattan area, the other on the platform. Two glass doors put him in direct communication with the great hall of the museum. "
Miss Withers, with a lot of school children in tow, along with Inspector Piper investigates a murder in the bathtub of the Penguins. Femme fatale, stalwart lawyers, brokers, petty thieves, guards, policemen and penguins wander through the corridors, halls and baths and - apart from the penguins - Even on the streets of New York post-depression but still struggling with the troubles in the stock market crash of 1929.
Palmer defines his character well, with humor, insight and a pericolossissimo umbrella, and also fits well with other actors on particular customs and fashions of the time, providing an interesting insight into some of New York at that time: "Involuntarily Piper said that was a hard hat, but now it was deemed ridiculous at that moment in New York, all wore hard hats." The
Withers will be so successful, however, that the teacher will be the star detective of eighteen titles.
The first publication of the novel in Italy dates back to 1937 on the historical anthology series No.5 Supergiallo Mondadori, before being reprinted in 1974 in the Classics Series No. 197 dated gold (is that the image accompanying the post) and 2006.
A Drama Aquarius , Stuart Palmer, The Classic of the Yellow Mondadori n. 1107, 2006

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Novels New York # 32: Life in New York


Being a talented writer and digging in past generations of their family history of emigration is like receiving an inheritance, a legacy far more valuable than many material goods.
Melania Mazzucco, one of our most talented and award-winning authors, listen to stories of his father Robert and uncle blind Amedeo on the vicissitudes of Diamond, a boy of twelve years and years of life that has nines. The two children start in 1903 by Tufo of Minto in the province of Caserta to reach Uncle Lamb, father of the girl and the boy's uncle.
The first stage is that of American gauntlet of Ellis Island, off the island of Manhattan where immigrants were subject to strict controls, if not brutal and merciless, with the risk of being branded with an X on your back and beautiful returned home.
And here begins the epic story of the two anti-heroes of the book, and other memorable characters: Rocco, Nicola said Coca Cola, Cichitto, Lena, Jeremiah, all the streets - at the time - the most infamous of the city.
Uncle Lamb lives in Prince Street, now one of the most chic streets of Soho, and sublets for parents and relatives because "has always had a keen desire of dollars" and Life is put to work immediately: "Today, cooked Vitarelli ".
The neighborhood is marked by the boundary of Houston Street, beyond which the signs outside the local flower No Niggers, Dogs, Italians (I have to translate?).
But kids, you know, are kids, and they go around. And with their eyes, the author tells the New York of the early twentieth century from the point of view, not privileged, the Italian immigrants.
There are skyscrapers under construction, and Diamond and friends violate yards, climb and dream of reaching the top, even if only to spit it down. And discover the city, the real one, not far but it seems so far away from the "tenements".
"They passed under an arch with the inscription Macy's and entered the realm of light. Life had never seen such a place, nor would see him in later years. She would never have crossed the border to Houston Street."
Yeah. In the story, as expected, there is only wonder and adventure. Oppression, disease and death, suffering and poverty, crime, illiteracy and the difficulties of love are the themes and events discussed in a frank, but also with great humanity and a sense of "sweet crude" that on several occasions dilutes the dramatic situations without becoming dull.
And this has helped greatly to overcome my instinctive cowardice by the player who escapes from the anguish of family stories and daily life - almost always dramatic when they finish a novel - in favor of other narrative genres.
Life, written in 2003 and recently reprinted in the series "Extra" of the Rizzoli Bur (the image relates to my issue, that of 2007) uses an exhaustive search of the author, with acute observations of contemporary chapters on change in the city, letters, photographs and documents in the novel, recently reprinted in the series "Extra" Rizzoli Bur
A draft of the complex, but rigorous emotional, with the title character real and memorable (maybe because unforgettable true).
Life , Melania Mazzucco, Extra Rizzoli Bur, 2010

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Novels # 31: From the Planet of Brooklyn in New York Control


From Brooklyn to Planet Control ( The Identity Plunderers ) is an unusual novel that mixes science fiction to detective novels about two in one, with the literary challenge to unite all in a plausible way.
The bet in the end, it seems only partially won, let's say you fall into the possession of the game and maybe we will run away too a drink. The number
Urania 980 series is the first work of Isidore Haiblum , written in 1984, the year of the first Terminator , a coincidence that, read the book, you may also define non-random.
Haiblum shows a good familiarity in the management of science fiction themes such as planets ruled by humanoids, from human brain extract ("nulls"), cyborg, a man and a she escaped from a prison planet and everything else belongs to the tradition of this series of Mondadori.
The land part of the story, where the Ross Block reporter investigating a murder, it is more convincing, especially in New York and rhythm elements.
journalist living and working nella Manhattan degli anni ‘80, quando New York si stava pian piano rifacendo il look dopo la parentesi "sporca, cattiva e pericolosa" dei '70: “La baciò sul naso, si alzò, andò alla finestra. Quattro piani più sotto c’erano West Broadway e Soho, il quartiere degli artisti di Manhattan Bassa. Bar ben messi, ristoranti non ordinari, qualche boutique chic e molti portici che si facevano concorrenza per attirare l’attenzione” .
E anche Brooklyn, il luogo d’origine del protagonista, dove torna per indagare dopo molti anni, mostra il cambiamento in corso: “La Brooklyn che lui conosceva non c’era più. Niente casamenti anneriti che si affollavano on sidewalks. No clothes hanging to dry in the courtyards. Instead, there were everywhere, some tall buildings, yellow brick, much like the boxes: buildings of apartments for lower middle class. And the flyover was gone. "
The chapters alternate between setting strict galactic and subway, another with a good amount of action that keeps up the pace of the story. The writer tries to unsettle the reader with sudden gear shifts between dream, reality, memory loss and finds up to a final, not without some difficulty and repeated narrative twists, reconnect everything.
From the Planet of Brooklyn control remains an interesting experiment, a sort of fantapulpdetective memorable you who have not read with curiosity.
From Brooklyn to Planet Control , Mondadori Urania No 980, 1984

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Novels # 30: Three Rooms in Manhattan in New York


some previous post I mentioned that some authors would have appeared several times in the blog with their works, New York.
A bit for luck, a bit of respect for one of my favorite writers, the first to give an encore is the same as post # 1 : Georges Simenon (1903-1989).
Three Rooms in Manhattan is one of the novels without Maigret Simenon that in the postwar years, like many European intellectuals, moved to the United States where he met Denyse Ouimet, his second wife. And it is precisely the theme of love novel, with its mysteries sometimes more complicated investigations by Commissioner French.
The protagonists, Francois and Kay, no longer young, no more carefree, seductive but not beautiful, cross their loneliness through the streets of Manhattan and deepen their knowledge of emotional outbursts, reluctance and jealousy, the song juke box, and small denominations rough tenderness.
to read this book you learn just one thing that every visitor to New York should know that to fully enjoy this city you must walk, and a lot: "And there they were again on the street was where the ultimately felt at home. Outside, in fact, changed mood, found themselves automatically miraculous lightness that they had discovered by chance ".
is true that the iconography of the city in motion often refers to images of taxi and subway, but the emotions, thoughts, discovery the great city and of themselves is step by step, literally and tirelessly, as do the two lovers of the novel, that stops are a hotel room, the house where she lives and the one where he lives (the three rooms of the title).
Passion attracts them and repels them, the bite of the past, of old lovers, friends, cynical, existential test more difficult designed to gather around the protagonists suffer, cry, react (not always well) that causes confusion to love.
But the streets of New York know how to be comforting: "I took a taxi. They walked on. As if that was their fate, as if they knew or could not stop." How will Simenon walked to New York, with his pipe, his eyes attentive to people, their faces, their gestures, but also skyscrapers and bridges: "He crossed the Greenwich Village towards the dock and bridge Brooklyn, and was the first time you walk on the giant iron bridge. "
How will it end this crazy love ? Well I certainly do not have to be to reveal it, but reading a novel by Simenon in love, the perfect setting aside the gears of the clockwork plots of his yellow is an exciting and surprising, which reveals the passionate side of a master of intrigue. And all this takes place in New York is certainly not a case.
Three Rooms in Manhattan , Georges Simenon, Adelphi, 1998

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Novels # 29: New Thing in New York


between jazz and New York is a very strong bond and the writers know that. In the novels of New York setting somebody mentions a song, who is a local, who is a musical, a jazz musician who does one of the protagonists, who puts jazz in its title, Who makes a sort of background for the story, who puts in almost everything that I mentioned.
But there are those who, as in the case of Wu Ming 1 alias Roberto Bui (Wu Ming is a collective of writers, if you want to learn more click here ), is jazz not only the backbone of the story but also the narrative style.
New Thing tells the most critical period for the black culture, those late 60's that saw the birth of the Black Panther movement and the explosion of a revolutionary jazz, free jazz, the "new thing" out of any fee , played in the local worst, and best of the city.
The book offers the reader as a jam session narrative, which revolves around the case of a serial killer known as Son of the Whiteman who chooses his victims among the black musicians. The narrative proceeds by excerpts of interviews with some "veterans" and recorded by journalist Sonia Langman (disappeared at the time of the crimes): "As important as the arrival of Ornette (Coleman, ed) in New York was the Revolution ' October. Mica that in Russia, eh. The one in the Cellar Café on 96th street west side. October 64. The October Revolution in Jazz, a six-day festival organized by Bill Dixon ... the maximum capacity was about sixty people, but in the evening was filled with a quail egg in an ostrich chick. "
And then the imaginary newspaper articles Brooklyn, flashbacks, and turns to local legendary (Cellar Café, Slugs, Birdland, Village Vanguard ...) and many musicians, and true blacks, with their lives as their legendary dead .
Those of the Black Power and free jazz have been years of suffering and hope for the black community: "In our music (to speak is the character of Rowdy Dow, ed) grew hungry. When you arrive in New York Pharaoh (Sanders, ed) slept in the subway. Rashid Ali slept in parks and ended when the soldiers will come Phialdelphia. "
Recently, the theatrical organization operating margin has staged a free adaptation the book with the show "Homicide, Jazz & Black Power" , an experimental performance that has reignited the focus on a text whose originality we find each reading, maybe you made our turn to jump, in chunks, depending on of his memories as a reader, a bit like when there is the sudden urge to listen to certain songs, but only some, a few jazz albums that we loved.
New Thing , Wu Ming 1, Einaudi (Stile Libero), 2004

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Novels # 28 : Bunny Lake Is Missing in New York


If you are among those who during a zapping not resistant to black and white images of a woman in a raincoat anxiety runs through the city, Well, do not miss this book.
Bunny Lake Is Missing , published in the U.S. in 1957, along with The Nanny one of the more famous alias Marryam Modell Evelyn Piper (1908-1994), a writer with a past as a model, a secretary and a great traveler. The model, Piper or if you prefer, here is the author of a psychological thriller with a central Blanche Lake, a beautiful single mother, moved from Providence to New York with Bunny, his three year old girl, to escape the evil tongue of province and to hope for a better future "In New York there are many more possibilities ... and then New York is so big and it's easier do not know their facts. " The city life Blanche forces to leave the child in a nursery but on the very first day, leaving no trace of Bunny. And here begins the ordeal of Blanche that not only must strive to find their daughter but must also fight to prove to everyone from police to the many, some memorable, shady characters in the story (but to us players ...), the 'existence of the child. The narrative tension increases
page after page of casting doubts, anxieties, empathy and dislikes. Blanche, the protagonist, is a great character, well-defined, multifaceted, experienced and combative.
New York City, the City of Hope, Blanche becomes in the eyes of a cynical place, indifferent "The people of New York look out the window. Only they do not care when they notice something strange. " Yet, without forgetting its origin from the small state of Rhode Island, the single mother tries to integrate, to adapt to the rhythms and habits of the city that sometimes seem only hinder in the search for Bunny and dry through dialogues that feed the suspense and the sense of unease that pervades the story will remain in suspense until the end.
This is the first title of the series The Dogs, the new Collection of Crime Polillo Publisher which joins the already proven The Dachshund and every fan of thrillers can only applaud this initiative to reprint small unpublished masterpieces - or almost - in our country.
I opened this review with a joke film and cinema with the close. In 1965 the director Otto Preminger directed the film of the same name Bunny Lake Is Missing based on the novel. The film, which has now become a cult, has very little in common with the novel (and not just as a different ending every time we read on the Net). Apart from the basic idea of \u200b\u200bthe missing child from kindergarten, and that no one believes her mother the similarities end there.
The film is set in London and not New York, there are new characters that are missing in book in the book while others are absent altogether or have completely different roles.
It is precisely under these circumstances, the final becomes different. On various magazine covers film that the director has considered uninteresting and inconsistent and that the final literary why has hired two screenwriters, John and Penelope Mortimer, to rewrite the subject.
understanding that the films of Preminger is a great example of style psycho Hitchcock (transmitted by RaiTre late at night on Christmas Eve of 2010, ed), I find the motivation to change ungenerous about the end of Piper, which is final contextualized in the personal history of Blanche. The protagonist
del libro è una single che lotta per affermarsi ed è anche lo strumento dell’autrice per raccontare attraverso la suspense il ruolo sociale della donna in quegli anni, alle prese con i conflitti familiari, i rapporti affettivi, d’amicizia e di buon(?) vicinato. In questo contesto, il finale scritto dalla Piper è perfetto e coerente, che poi non sia cinematografico o che Otto Preminger non l’abbia considerato tale, diminuendo anche l’impatto “protofemminista” della trama, questo è un altro discorso.
Inoltre l’idea della Piper ha continuato a sedurre il cinema, anche se senza alcun riconoscimento, come avranno avuto modo di notare tutti quelli che hanno visto il film Flightplan - Mistero in Flight (2005) starring Jodie Foster.
Bunny Lake Is Missing , Evelyn Piper, Polillo Editor (The Dogs), 2010