I've enjoyed some of Carcaterra's works, but this is another of his failures...

Caracterra attributes the change in his personality to the discovery that his father is a murderer, but surely the experiences in the boys' home had just as negative and life-changing an effect on him.

The story of Lorenzo's life is told well, with interesting parallels between his father's and mother's first marriages - I like the way they were juxtaposed.

I found his hero-worshipping of his father, even before he knew of his murderer status, rather strange, as it just didn't ring true that a child so abused would still love his father - maybe this is just my poor understanding of their relationship.

Ultimately, this is a worthwhile read, although not quite as gripping as 'Sleepers'.

In the prologue of the book, Angelo Vestiere, the gangster of the title, lies in a hosptial bed dying. Next to him sits a man named Gabe who we have yet to learn how he figures into this story. A woman named Mary enters the room, introduces herself to Gabe and offers to tell Gabe the complete story of Vestiere, the gangsters life.

Part I begins with Angelo and his family living in Italy. From there we watch as the family journeys to America as part of the mass immigration which took place to this country and then Angelo's life on the streets of New York. Finally we read about his rise to power as one the most feared gangsters. Interspersed in the chapters are relationships Angelo makes along the way which influence him; his marraige to Isabella which ends in tragedy and the gang wars which make him more and more feared and stronger and stronger within the organized crime network. Perhaps its a bit too much of same old, same old but Part I of the book was rather ho hum and I only continued at this point to see if Part II would be more interesting.

And Part II did prove to be much better. The character of Gabe,a 10 year old oprphan is introduced as the reader watches him come into Angelo's world, is taken under his wing, tutored by Angelo to become a ganster and the decision which Gabe must make about his future. And now we are able to make the connection between the man sitting at Angelo's bed and the young orphan from years go. As Mary concludes her telling of Angelo Vestiere's life with a startling revelation, Gabe is finally able to complete a puzzle which has haunted him and ths tale of Angelo and Gabe comes full circle.

I finally did enjoy the book and now look forward to Mr. Carcaterra's next book.

Of course there's violence. It's gruesome and ugly and awful. But, like many other books of this kind, there are bad gangsters and good gangsters. The bad gangsters are cruel to children and animals and say mean things to insult the good gangsters. Certainly, they all deserve to die. The good gangsters have a sense of honor and have suffered betrayal and tragedy and loss. They protect the innocent and drink milk or coffee instead of alcohol. They have good manners and keep a low profile and are always smarter than the bad gangsters. It's stereotype all the way for everyone, including a colorful female character who runs a café and is not only a mother figure, but also knows how to use a gun.

Carcaterra writes well. His words just slide across the page and make it all seem real. This is the Hudson River before Battery Park City. This is downtown Manhattan before the World Trade Center. This is violence and evil without blowing up buildings or biological terrorism. This is nostalgia for the more innocent world of mob wars and retribution and revenge. Ah - the simple life! I loved it. Couldn't put it down. And will probably forget about it tomorrow. Highly recommended.

I also feel that Carcaterra remembered that he introduced the idea of conspiracy from the other street boys in the late rounds of writing and realized that he had to kill their leader before moving forward.

Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone. I regretfully picked this book up in an airport bookstore based on my past experience with Carcaterra novels. This will be my last based on the fact that I felt he was whoring his writing out and begging for a movie deal with his latest work.

There were 200 children orphaned and abandoned in the city they identified as their home. STREET BOYS is the story of their tenacious and magical efforts to prevent the Nazis from achieving their goal.

The universal theme of Good vs. Evil is depicted throughout the book, many times unfortunately, in vignettes that defy belief. Carcaterra's weakness in this book is his inability to abut the edge of absurdity but never cross it. Instead, the important scenes are so incredible even the most gullible reader will struggle to swallow without choking. Several times the youth, untrained and out-manned, engage the evil Nazis in battle and emerge victorious. The "kiddie guerrillas" manage to initially arm themselves with rifles previously jettisoned in 40 ft of water which they retrieve, dry out, and learn to expertly shoot. The youthful combatants also recover machineguns, ammo, grenades and tanks with minimum casualties while maximizing the kill of the trained but inefficient enemy.

I have liked Carcaterra's previous work but STREET BOYS falls short of his past excellence. It is very difficult to recommend but if you must read it, use the library.