Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

Shorto is an acclaimed historian (you can usually find his modern classic, Amsterdam, on our Cities shelf), but he was reluctant to tell his own family history, specifically that of his namesake grandfather, Russ Shorto, who, with his brother-in-law, ran the local mob—and the town—in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the mid-20th century. But you'll be glad he finally did: Smalltime (especially as read by Shorto himself) is moving, funny, and enlightening, unearthing family secrets but also embedding them in a fascinating social history of Sicilian immigrants climbing the American social structure in about the only way available to them. (I heard many echoes from a previous Audiobook of the Week, The World According to Fannie Davis, a rosier portrait of family prosperity built on the other side of the law.) —Tom
(Order the audio download of Smalltime from our partners at Libro.fm)