Reviews

• This is a great novel (and I do not use that adjective lightly). A historical novel, it presents itself as a first-person autobiography. After a lifetime in Hell's Kitchen and beyond, Owney Madden ends his days in Arkansas, his mother dead, his brother dead and his beloved sister May dead. Owney has survived, succumbing to emphysema and not gunshots at the age of 30 or 32, like many of his contemporaries. The book is based on significant archival research and includes a number of very nice photographs. The author is an ambidextrous, highly-skilled writer. A journalist, novelist and screenwriter MW is also a music critic and a superb writer of serious nonfiction. How many contemporary writers could pen an award-winning novel about the Irish mob as well as THE DEVIL'S PLEASURE PALACE: THE CULT OF CRITICAL THEORY AND THE SUBVERSION OF THE WEST? Why is this novel so successful? First and foremost, the writing is spectacular—the protagonist speaking in a putatively crude voice but one suffused with Irish texture that ascends skyward. Secondly: if you're going to write a historical novel pull out all the stops and pick a point in history that includes not just a gangland galaxy but one with fighters such as James Braddock and Jack Johnson and musicians such as Duke Ellington and Lena Horne. Pick a character who ran the Cotton Club and slept with Mae West. Throw in an endless number of period details, objects from material culture, street and gang argot and the pulsing drama that accompanies prohibition beer and liquor and the individuals who operate the rackets. With all the sex and drugs you don't really need rock and roll. Most important, pick the perfect subject with the perfect themes. Raymond Chandler argued that crime and capitalism, at their extremes, go hand in hand. One is an expression of the other. Once we chase the dollar we begin to chase the sharp dollar and then we are just a step away from the dark side, so much so that the dark and the light intermingle. That is why a mobster can become a likeable and engaging character; he is not that different from us all. The society which results, Chandler argued, is one in which all large institutions (governments, unions, corporations, organized crime) become interconnected and, together, dominate the little guy. So what happens when the little guy is up to the task of not just surviving but, himself, dominating? His story is AND ALL THE SAINTS and even though he plays rough he is up against very rough opponents, so much so that he can steal, maim and kill and still emerge as a hero. James Ellroy tells stories of "heavily-compromised redemption" and speaks of American "tragic realism." This novel could be exhibit A in the Ellroy template. AND ALL THE SAINTS is a long novel, but it flies by, with blood spatter dotting the sparkling prose. Do not miss it. And, with me, wait patiently for MW's THE FIERY ANGEL: ART, CULTURE, SEX, POLITICS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE WEST (coming on May 29th).

• I enjoyed this book, Owney Madden is not as well known as his contemporaries but his story is just as important in the world of early 20th Century gangsters of New York. The book is well written and was is good condition.

• I found this book both interesting and informative, i enjoyed the read and was happy i brought this book, hope you do too.

• I found this account of the life and times of New York gangster Owen Madden to sound authentic and fanciful at the same time. Done autobiograhically, this is a terrific read about a hardened yet complex man.

• I’m reading everything by Michael Walsh right now, bc I think his cultural criticism is spot on. If you like gangsters, this is quite a fun novel of the life of Owen Madden, a notorious gangster back in the days of Capone, Lansky, etc. Mae West appears, as does the Cotton Club. Good read.

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