Customer Reviews

The Five Points

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A few things kept me away from giving this story (actually two stories) a perfect rating. One: it was too short--I enjoyed the story-telling and most of the characters, and I wanted the book to go on more. Two, I needed more facts, more background. It took me a while to understand the relationship between the gangs, the police, and Tammany Hall. Once the connection was made clear, it made pretty good sense. I am a nitpicker though. I also notice no other titles in this author's bibliography so I'm assuming it's Mr. Doramunno's first book. In that case, it's a very good first novel.

There's a lot in these two novellas that seem too strange, too scary to believe that it really happened. But I had read two of Caleb Carr's fictional books on New York history and seen the History Channel's documentary on The Five Points, and it turns out that a lot of the horrible situations that this book covers is maybe only a little exaggerated. I liked the author's style; he's a little removed from the horrors but when things turn out well for some characters, he wants you to celebrate with him. There are some memorable scenes and sometimes it seems like the parts are better than the whole. Still, there's a reward at the end of each story that makes it all worthwhile. The book ends very abruptly. I think he [the author] is getting us ready for a follow-up. If there is one, I will buy it.

I admit that I'm not much of a reader of historical fiction because authors kind of always make the past seem so much more superior to the present. THE FIVE POINTS is a very detached look at the poverty of a New York town in the 1800s. Although some of the characters seem two dimensional, the key characters come off as being very rounded out and intriguing. The pacing is fast most of the time, and very deliberate when it needs it. I really enjoyed this book and already lent it to two friends.

When viewed through R. Dormarunno's 19th century lens, life in 21st century NYC sure seems TAME! I liked these combined two separate (albeit related) novellas.

This volume will go on my shelf next to Caleb Carr's "The Alienist," Tyler Anbinder's "Five Points" and Herbert Asbury's "Gangs of New York." Next up for me is David Carlyon's new "Dan Rice" bio!

I picked up this book after reading Baker's "Paradise Alley". Both books were very good at capturing the dark world of New York's underworld of the 1800s. "The Five Points" was pretty good, but I only wish that it had been longer. The two stories are suspenseful--and I especially liked the ending of the second book called, "Wonderful Bastards". I saw on the Amazon list that there is a sequel. I think I will pick it up.

A poignant look into one of history's most squalid of settlements. Spellbinding to the last; Dormarunno's gripping narrative ushers us through the gaslit streets of the lower east side at a charged pace. Like its city, the story never sleeps.

Rocco Dormarunno, a native of Brooklyn, does a fabulous balancing act in his book The Five Points. This is two stories/books in one. The author manages to portray the cold-hearted reality of life in Five Points, a life of crime, desperation and survival, a life where anything one can do in order to make it to another day seems to be in order. While he seems to clearly define the amoral choices that are being pursued, he also lends an aura of celebration to the small victories each of his players attains. At the same time, the cost of these victories is measured in bitter doses by those on the loosing end.
His stories are magnetic and unyielding and possess a clarity of insight into the lives and times of Five Points.