Brash and macho, but doesn’t present a coherent narrative.
Grisly tales of a notorious East Coast biker gang.
The book begins promisingly, with a clipped, vibrant prose style, presumably due to the efforts of co-author and defense attorney Droban (Running With the Devil: The True Story of the ATF’s Infiltration of the Hell’s Angels, 2008). Menginie was born into the “family” of the Pagans, an old-school outlaw motorcycle gang. His father, “Maingy,” was a Pagans leader, until he was incarcerated and, much later, became a “turncoat,” joining the Hells Angels, their historical rival. Maingy hardly appears within the narrative, except as an object of his son’s hatred. Early chapters portraying Menginie’s childhood are grim: “Beauty didn’t survive in the biker world without sacrifice. Pretty things wilted and were reduced to mere property. The only way my mom made sense of her life was to destroy it.” By adolescence, he’d witnessed addiction, violence and group sex, but some of the adult bikers, like the mostly good “Saint” and the mostly evil “Gorilla,” helped him along. While the Saint encouraged him to be his own person, Gorilla groomed him for club membership as a “Prospect” (like pledging a fraternity, but a more lengthy and brutal process). This involved fulfilling Gorilla’s criminal schemes, under the guise of Pagan “brotherhood.” During this time, the Pagans’ rivalry with organized crime in Philadelphia was heating up, as was the conflict with the Hells Angels; Gorilla was obsessed with the turncoats, and ordered Menginie to plan their murders. While the author did not commit any such acts, other public mayhem drew police and media attention, including the shooting of Gorilla, an act for which the author’s father was suspected: “Gorilla had me convinced that I had to finish off my old man.” Instead, Menginie abruptly quit the Pagans’ grim lifestyle. Except for Gorilla—Steven Mondevergine, a notorious figure recently indicted for attempted murder—few of the actual participants in Menginie’s world are clearly identified, and the narrative isn’t backed up with clear sourcing or fuller context. While this may suggest underworld authenticity, it makes the memoir hard to follow.
Brash and macho, but doesn’t present a coherent narrative.Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-57654-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
A true-crime page-turner about the privileged New Jersey teens who made headlines after callously discarding the baby they never wanted into the trash bin of the hotel where they secretly gave birth. Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson seemingly had it all: privileged northern New Jersey suburban upbringing, successful senior years, a competitive education. Notably lacking in that curriculum was a good sex education class, though, because, as Most relates, when Amy discovered she was pregnant at the end of her senior year, she and Brian spent most of the first trimester—indeed, most of the pregnancy—hoping “it” would simply disappear. The method they finally chose in November of their freshmen year in college shocked a nation used to reading this kind of sordid tale in urban (read poverty-stricken, less educated) environs. Bergen Record reporter Most, who wrote over 150 articles as the case unfolded, expertly recreates the shameful story here, tracing both teens’ childhoods, the mindset of the tony town in which they lived, and the many ways in which their parents, friends, and, yes, society were unwitting accomplices in the death. Overall, Most lets the story tell itself, although he does get a little heavy-handed at times as he repeatedly notes the ways in which competitive parents helped create the situation. Most ends by noting that he hopes “parents with Amys and Brians in their homes will be forced to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they know their children. Not their grade-point average, their after-school activities, and their career track, but their habits, their friends, their sexual maturity, and their experiences with drugs.” Anyone who believes sex education doesn’t belong in the classroom or that parenting is merely a question of keeping track of their kids’ grades should read this sad cautionary tale. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-9654733-5-X
Page Count: 280
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A haunting look at the phenomenon of missing persons. Scottish journalist O'Hagan explored the United Kingdom in search of stories of people who have vanished. He begins with his own grandfather, a sailor lost at sea, and continues the search through the ugly tenements where he grew up—and where several boys were lost. He interviews the families of these children, and their agony is horribly vivid. One father happened upon a look-alike of his missing son and almost begged the boy to move to his house and pretend to be his son. Other parents obsessively flip through photographs of their missing children, forever frozen in time at the age they were when taken. The police call the vanished ``mispers,'' for missing persons, and are only now beginning to compile records on the subject. O'Hagan also visits a grim center for homeless teens, where the residents do their best to sever any remaining familial ties. He follows the trail of a number of lost girls to the home of Fred West, who killed at least 25 female boarders and buried them in his backyard. These stories are unrelenting, and O'Hagan presents solid insights into both the minds of the families and those of some who've deliberately disappeared. But the grisly litany would have been better served by the presence of real insight into why people vanish. He revisits the murder scene of James Bulger, a young boy killed by two 10-year-olds, and recounts episodes of his own cruelty, as a child, toward other children. But while O'Hagan raises the fascinating specter of child sadism, he doesn't speculate on its causes, quickly dropping the matter. Though somewhat lacking in a sense of the big picture, this is a powerfully observed and often heartbreaking portrait in miniature of those who disappear and the effect on those they leave behind.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-56584-335-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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