Confessions

My friend Loren Estleman has written a remarkable novel called The Confessions of Al Capone. It is set in 1944, near the end of the war, when Capone is rapidly deteriorating from the effects of syphilis in Florida after being released from Alcatraz. J. Edgar Hoover insinuates an agent, in the guise of a priest, into the Capone household, seeking more information on the mob.

The novel is much larger than a depiction of the mob, or Capone's past. The agent who dons a priest's collar is soon awash in misgivings that reach deep into the sacred and evoke questions of good and evil, right and wrong. The story is more about Hoover's overreach, vanity and cruelty. Estleman devotes a great deal of attention to Capone's remarkable wife Mae, who holds her household together and protects her failing husband. She is a memorable character.

Estleman's novel is rich in period detail, and depicts a country few modern people would recognize, one in which ethnic and tribal antagonisms still play out violently, and in which serious privation wrought by the war constrains everyday life. It is a time of ration stamps, shortages, price controls, and frustration.

This is a rich and absorbing novel, wrought by a gifted author in his prime, and it will, I believe, be celebrated for its courage and honesty and also because it's a splendid story.