As an Italian, I couldn’t help but pick this book up because of the title. Crooks: A Novel About Crime and Family by Lou Berney was actually one that I listened to in the car. I have to say that whoever narrated it did a great job. His pacing and inflection conveyed exactly what was going on in the story and with the characters.
In the movie The Godfather, you have Don Corleone and his adult children, some who are involved in the family business, some who know of it, and one who gets pulled into it. This story takes a different approach. You have a guy who is involved with the mob, as well as his wife and children – young children. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
From award-winning author Lou Berney comes an electrifying new novel that follows a uniquely American crime family on an unforgettable journey across four decades.
You’ve never met a family like the Mercurios.
They say the American dream is going farther in life than your parents ever did. But how does that work if your parents are criminals?
For Buddy, a low-level mob wise guy, and Lillian, a charming pickpocket, the criminal underworld is the only life they’ve ever known. When they’re forced to flee the glittering Babylon of Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City—a town that quickly feels like a gold mine of fresh marks and easy new money. Along for the ride are their five children, all of them raised into the family business of crime—until the day comes when they each have a chance to make their own way in the world, even if they can never completely escape the family’s long, dark shadow.
Jeremy, the family’s Golden Boy, will throw himself into the glittering excesses of a drug-fueled Hollywood in the roaring 1980s.
Tallulah, the daredevil, will find herself in the deadly Wild West of post-communist Moscow.
Ray, the dope, the dumb muscle since he was a kid, wants nothing more than to put down his gun, but following orders is all he’s ever known.
Alice, the genius who renounced her life of crime long ago, now sees her white-shoe law firm being blackmailed and must tap into old skills to save both the company and her own life.
And Piggy, a civilian always on the outside looking in on his crime family, desperate to be part of the gang.
Crooks is an epic novel about a truly unforgettable crime family—and their lives across forty years of corruption, each Mercurio living with the weight of a dark legacy that ultimately threatens to destroy the whole family.
As the synopsis says, the book begins with the parents and their children. It is set in the 1970’s. As the book progresses, you get a snapshot of each child on their own, as an adult. Each one has their own story and when it takes place varies, but each story is after the original story.
Each one ends up in a very different situation. Occasionally, the siblings will interact with each other from time to time. One is always trying to get everyone together again. Will that ever happen, and if it does, how will they all react to each other?
No spoilers here.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 