Codella secures justice of a sort in this taut true-crime tale, which varies from by-the-numbers to genuinely exciting.
Tough-talking memoir of a street cop turned detective who battled the druglords of New York City’s Lower East Side.
Alphaville, or Alphabet City, may now resemble “Epcot center, or one of those streets in southern college towns where kids go to get drunk on weekends,” but, as NYPD stalwart Codella—paired with musician and ghostwriter Bennett—writes, it wasn’t always that way. Before the Dinkins and Giuliani cleanup-and-sanitization operations in the distant late ’80s, the “Loisaida” was the turf of a particularly tough bunch of hoods who sold drugs and committed extremely brutal murders; one collected the eyes and teeth of his victims in a mayonnaise jar, apparently just for grins. Enter Codella, descended from wise guys, cops and good citizens—in short, a normal Italian boy from Brooklyn, but with a particular bent for the street and urge to clean things up himself. He found his nemesis and match early on in drug kingpin “Davey Blue Eyes,” who always seemed to be a step ahead of the good guys, managing even to get away from a seemingly impenetrable ring of armed cops. Now nicknamed “Rambo,” Codella and his partner spent their waking hours bringing the criminals to justice, with a finely honed sense of indignation: “I felt like the only law that mattered, and these fuckers had broken it…they were fucking with me just by existing, just by what they were doing to the people around them.” The upshot, however, is worthy of Serpico; it would spoil things to say more, but suffice it to say that Blue Eyes is probably still breathing free air somewhere.
Codella secures justice of a sort in this taut true-crime tale, which varies from by-the-numbers to genuinely exciting.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-59248-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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