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38th out of 41 books
—
30 voters
The Hoods
by
Harry Grey
"This book by HARRY GREY --an ex-hood himself --will shock you but you must read it. He dares to tell the truth about cold-blooded Killer Mobs and how they work." --Mickey Spillaine. Written in prison by author Grey, this legendary novel became the source for Sergio Leone's classic Once Upon a Time in America.
Paperback, 476 pages
Published
August 1st 2006
by Blackmask.com
(first published 1952)
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I read this book when I was a teenager. Loved it. The movie "Once Upon a Time in America" was based on it. Insider mob novel (based on fact - but with a lot of "novel" around it)) that seems pretty accurate to me about 20s and 30s NYC mob stuff. It's a bit different in that the main characters are Jewish racketeers who eventually inter react with the the Italian Mafia and form what was then referred to as the combination. It's a period in organized crime that is minimized today - the straight Ma...more
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I probably overated this book from the point of view of comparative literary value. But, I love a crime read, and this one also happens to be set on the Lower East Side (Delancy Street) area where I was born and mostly raised, and was so true in it's characters and setting and spirit(a world of which some vestiges still remained when I was junior high school age), that I found it irresistable. "Hoods" is also a perfect sequel to, "Dreamland" as it picks up the same neighborhood and character typ...more
Книга - первооснова знаменитого фильма Серджо Леоне "Однажды в Америке"! К сожалению фильм еще не смотрела, но после прочтения обязательно посмотрю! Читается в принципе легко, но перевод явно подкачал!.. Манера изложения тоже хромает. Очень много односложных предложений, таких как: "Выпили. Сели играть в карты. Снова выпили." И так на протяжении всей книги. Это как-то сбивает при прочтении! А вот зато концовку я читала взахлеб! Прочла на одном дыхании!
"Once Upon A Time in America" is one of my favorite movies, and I wanted to read the book that inspired one of my favorite directors, Sergio Leone, to make it. The book fleshed out a lot of the back story of Noodles, Max, Patsy, Cockeye and Dominic, but also differed from the movie slightly, which was OK. I'm not sure how much of the book was really true (like solving the mystery of the disappearance of Judge Crater), but the book itself was hard to put down and was an easy, action packed "old s...more
I love this book. It tells the story of 4 lower East Side of NY young toughs who grow up into killers for the developing Syndicate.
Written by Harry Gray and a semi autobiographical look at the tenement mentality and experiences of many ethnic New Yorkers. It was especially great for me because I know the areas, places and language of the book. I get the Yiddish jokes and expressions. These are my people.
A may-be-fiction, might-be-autobiography account of four kids who grew up in poverty in Hell's Kitchen before the Depression and ended up leaving school to become gangsters, booze runners, strong-arms and hitmen. It's not great writing by any stretch of the imagination, and it sort of gets repetitive after the first couple hundred pages, but there are enough action scenes to keep you slogging through it.
The tough thing about this edition was that it was so full of punctuation and spacing errors...more
The tough thing about this edition was that it was so full of punctuation and spacing errors...more
I read this one mainly out of my interest to the film 'Once Upon A Time in America'. I doubt whether I would have enjoyed it as much if I hadn't seen the film. What made it enjoyable was looking for the similarities. Surprisingly, in comparison to the film, there was considerably little violence and a lot more emphasis on humour, although this too appeared in the film, especially in the sections set in the 1920s. The film borrowed heavily from certain sections of the book especially the very ear...more
Jun 21, 2010
Robert
marked it as to-read
Well, I just learned that Harry Grey actually wrote a novel, Once Upon a Time in America, as well as Hoods. I'm guessing at this point that based on Harold's reading of Hoods, both novels contribute background material to the movie.
"The Hoods" is an autobiographical account of the life of a Jewish gangster in New York's Lower East Side between 1910 and 1933 and was written by Harry Grey (real name Harry Goldberg) partly whilst Goldberg was in Sing Sing prison. First published in 1952, it fascinated movie director Sergio Leone who eventually made the film "Once Upon A Time In America" based on this book.
Harry Grey claims that the only detail in the book he took liberties with was the death of his friend Max. The author wen...more
Harry Grey claims that the only detail in the book he took liberties with was the death of his friend Max. The author wen...more
The synthesis of the ephemeral with the epic ending in enormous and eternal emptiness. Both Once upon a time and Every time.
I liked it enough and could see why it was the basis for a movie.
Hoodlums in prohibition age USA. This book evokes the era and its attitudes, portraying a corrupt society where anything seemed to be justified to improve one's financial situation.
This is a fun pulp gangster classic. Basis of for Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America".
Jun 17, 2013
Eggroll
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